Second Wind
by Ysabet
Summary: A sequal to 'The Longest Hour', which is a sequal to 'The Window'; Ran's been transformed into a child, and she and Conan must deal with the consequences. All this and a ghost story too. ***** FINISHED!!! CH. 10 AND EPILOGUE LOADED AS OF 7/12/02*****
1. Truths And Consequences

_Hi there..... Sigh; I just don't know when to quit. I wrote "The Window", and then I wrote its sequal "The Longest Hour"--- and I had an idea that I was just gonna have to write the next part, because otherwise how would I know whether or not poor Conan/Shinichi lived through explaining everything to Ran's dad? So here goes! Warning: No flashbacks, no lead-ins; it's a straight continuation, and if you haven't read THL you won't know what the hell is happening. Angst in the first chapter (plus a bit of silliness here and there). Things will lighten up quite a bit, but there's another story here, too; hope you like it. Please read and review--- If you don't, you are but mere fanboys. Oh, by the way: Disclaimer saith "This isn't mine, the characters belong to the magnificent and talented Gosho Aoyama, may he flourish! Don't sue me, please, 'cause it just isn't worth your time or my money!" Abayo.... Ysabet_

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**Second Wind  
By Ysabet  
  
  
**

_Chapter One: Truths and Consequences_

The sounds were scarcely noticeable at first--- just tiny noises, muffled whimpers rather like what a half-smothered puppy might make if held too tightly. Against the rattle of water pipes and the distant sound of passing automobiles they were nearly inaudible, unless one listened closely. 

But they were such pathetic sounds; soft, muted gasps that never quite resolved into sobs--- almost as if the sufferer were afraid that they would be heard, and sought out, and punished….. They died away, shivering into the dusty corners of the tiny over-stuffed storage room, mingling with cobwebs and forgotten dirt. 

Click. The small room's lock was being unlatched; the sounds ceased instantly. 

A face peered in through the narrow opening as the door slipped silently open; a narrow-eyed, slightly wild gaze scanned the small room for movement. 

Nothing. Silence. 

A muttered curse, then the door shut again with a sharp rattle of a turned key in the lock. 

It was a while before the cries began again. 

***********************************************

Upstairs in the living room of the Mouri Detective Agency, a great deal of explaining had just been done. 

"Let me see if I understand this correctly..." said the mustachioed man carefully, leaning back against the cushions of the couch. 

Three pairs of eyes followed his movements. The first pair was dark and wary, the second pair wide and somewhat glassy--- and the third, _very_ nervous pair kept straying longingly towards the open door. 

The man spoke perhaps a little too precisely, spacing his words out with great care. An observer might have been forgiven for thinking him perfectly calm, not upset at all, no, perfectly composed, thank you; only the rather glazed, glittering look in his eyes gave him away. 

"You---" (and he pointed at the owner of the first pair of eyes) "--- decided to let yourself be..... _reduced....._ because you wanted to--- ahhh, would you mind explaining that last point again?" His words were very polite; one could scarcely notice the shaking. Beneath him the couch-cushion made tiny ripping noises as his hands clenched on the fabric. 

The young girl sitting opposite from him answered in a small, rather guilty voice. "I, um, wanted to stay with Shinichi..... Dad, it was my decision and I made it on my own-----" 

Beside her the owner of the third pair of eyes blinked and swallowed hard. He cleared his throat. ".....Mouri-san, it was entirely my fault---" he began...... 

His words trailed off as Mouri Kogoro turned a freezing glare in his direction. "You--- " he grated out (and there was a certain note of 'impending doom' in that voice that made the boy shiver) "--- I don't want to hear anything from you yet.... _You'll get your turn."_

The promise implied in the last phrase was enough to turn anyone's blood cold. 

_*Oh, this is NOT going well.....*_ thought Kudo Shinichi, beginning to slip unobtrusively towards the front of his seat in preparation for a quick dash towards safety. _*No, not well at all.*_

And it had started out so beautifully, too..... 

***********************************************

_All in all, it had been a lovely evening. The stars shone crisply down, their light filtering through the haze of neon that always overhung the city; a faint breeze was blowing-- just enough to carry away the fumes of passing cars, just enough to bring out the taste of early Autumn. It was quite late; the smaller shops had closed down already and the larger ones were beginning to bring in their signs and sidewalk displays. _

"Do you think maybe we ought to go inside?" The young boy sitting on the stairs in front of the Mouri residence glanced aside at his companion, a slight frown of worry crinkling his forehead. He leaned back, resting on his elbows. 

The small girl beside him shrugged, pushing back her dark hair from her face. She checked the watch on her wrist; it was too big for her, the band slipping loose despite having been snugged up as far as it could go. "It's a quarter to ten..... I would've thought he'd be back by now....." She looked down at the oversized timepiece and sighed. "Dad gave me this for my birthday last year, and it's going to be a while before I can wear it again; oh well....." 

A flash of guilt passed over the boy's face; his eyes dropped, and he stared down at his shoes. At his silence, the girl looked up and her expression of impatience faded into one of mild exasperation. She sighed. "Shinichi..... Conan..... I told you--- quit with the guilt, already! I wasn't trying to make you feel bad..... It's just going to take some getting used to, that's all." She sat back, crossing her arms. 

The boy looked up, offering her a wry smile. "You're telling me....." he said softly, his words an apology. 

They sat there in silence as a car passed, the headlights reflecting off the shop-windows around them. Conan followed the red taillights with his eyes; his gaze trailed sideways then to his companion. *Ran..... * Her round-cheeked young face held an expression too old for her apparent years; she sat turning her hands over and over, examining their shape with wonder and a strange kind of satisfaction. Meeting his eyes, she smiled back. "So small..... I don't remember them being small when I was like this before....." She stretched out one foot in front of her, examining it critically. "And my ankles are so thin. What will other kids look like to me now?" 

A chuckle made her glance up. Conan leaned back again, watching the thinning traffic; he was smiling a little as he replied. "Oh, they'll look funny, believe me. All these little pipsqueaks that you spent the last half of your life stooping down to talk to are suddenly your height, and some of them are even taller--- it takes a lot of getting used to. And they don't move like adults, either; that was even weirder. You learn a lot about body language pretty damn quickly." He tilted his head towards her, streetlights highlighting the laughter in his eyes. 

Ran stretched, yawning a little; it really was growing late. "Guess I'll manage; guess I'll have to..... I wonder how my dad and mom'll take this?" The question made her companion flinch; he slowly rose to his feet as, as if in answer, a taxi pulled up to the curbside. 

"Don't look now..." he muttered darkly, "..... but I think we're going to find out. Think fast." 

The taxi disgorged two passengers, a man and a woman; as Mouri Kogoro helped his wife Eri from the vehicle, he leaned close and whispered something softly that made her laugh. Ran's eyes widened; she edged unconsciously closer to Conan, who took her hand in his. The couple turned towards the stairs, still smiling and talking in lowered tones--- 

--- where they stopped at the sight of two small, apprehensive figures. The man frowned, irritation spreading across his face. "Boy? Where's Ran?" His frown deepened as he watched the young girl edge ever-so-slightly behind Conan, who clutched her hand tighter. Slowly, slowly, Mouri Kogoro's eyes began to widen as the first unwilling glimmers of recognition struggled up from the depths of memory. 

Beside him there was a gasp. **"R---- R-Ran?!?"** whispered her mother..... 

***********************************************

Explanations had been--- difficult. 

Long, too. Several times during the seemingly-endless conversation Conan had found himself wishing desperately that his current body had been old enough to drink….. Poor Ran had helped as much as she could, especially when her father's face had purpled with fury; but the burden of the tale had fallen upon the boy's shoulders. 

He could only wish that they could have been broader. 

Even as he carefully related the truth of the past year's history (leaving out certain pertinent details regarding wristwatch sleeping darts and bowtie voice-disguisers--- he _did_ want _some_ chance of surviving this, after all), some small part of his mind made little notes regarding his audience. The detective in his skull never quite slept….. It was interesting (in a rather gruesome way) what made Ran's parents react the most. When, as clinically as possible, he had described the excruciating pain that the capsule had inflicted on him during his change, Eri-san had winced back and her eyes had filled with sympathetic tears. Mouri-san, on the other hand, had sat stolidly; his eyes had remained fixed unblinkingly on Conan's. 

And yet….. had there been a momentary flicker of something (approval?) when the boy had touched on the various schemes and strategies by which he had kept his secret? 

Possibly… especially after he had explained _why._ The Black Organization, of course; they'd have to be careful, all of them. That momentary flicker had grown stronger when Conan had stressed what would almost certainly have happened to them all (especially Ran) if he *had* slipped up and exposed his identity. 

But a moment's approval had not been _nearly_ enough when it became Mouri-san's daughter's turn to tell her own tale. 

Ran had spoken quietly, telling the whole thing in a detached fashion; her dark blue eyes were calm, but her hand sought out Conan's while she spoke. The lilting little-girl voice had held overtones of sadness and certainty that went far beyond what any child should be able to feel; it was unnerving. And during it all, her mother had kept _touching_ her--- reaching out a finger to brush a cheek, to stroke her daughter's hair….. almost as if she needed to reassure herself that this was, indeed, really her child that spoke so calmly and steadily about the most traumatic event in her young life. 

And through it all, Mouri-san's eyes had burned at Conan. 

When Ran's words faltered and failed at the moments of her own translation into a second childhood, there was a silence….. As she took a deep breath and continued, her mother reached out again, brushing the tangle of hair back from the round, childish face. Ran stopped for a moment to smile at her tremulously, and the boy beside her felt a lump rising in his throat. 

_*Ran.... to hear you talk about it--- it's almost as bad as being there---*_ Conan swallowed, feeling the small fingers grip his even tighter. And all the while, Mouri Kogoro's eyes never left his face. 

At last the tale was told, and Ran sank back against the cushions with an audible sigh of relief. "That's it, really….. I made my choice, and now I'm going to learn to live with it." She stared at her feet, noting how they no longer reached the floor. Beside her Conan sat silently, a quiet, reassuring presence. 

"I know what you're thinking….. I'm too young to make decisions like this; but--- how old were you both when you started making choices that would affect the rest of your life? I mean… Dad---" Ran turned to him, her large eyes fierce; "--- you went into the police force when you were only a year older than me! And, Mom, you were married when you were my age!" 

Across from her daughter, Eri drew in her breath sharply; Ran reached out, touching her mother's hand. 

"I made a choice, my _own_ choice; don't blame Shinichi for this. _**I**_ made this choice; he couldn't stop me, no matter what he did. And you know, sooner or later things would've been changing for me anyway….. I would've gone away to college, or taken a job somewhere, or, or gotten married….." 

Her eyes flickered sideways for a moment, and Conan felt his cheeks warm. The hand holding his tightened gently, and he shifted a little closer to her on the couch. His shoulder brushed hers. _*I wonder what our lives would be like right now, if we hadn't gone to Tropical Land that night? I really wonder, Ran.....* _

*I wish.....* 

The girl's eyes dropped then, and the faint note of defiance faded from her voice. "I... suppose I'm not being fair to you... I've just done something that'll make me, well, a 'dependent' for another decade or so. You shouldn't have to support a child for that long." She was quiet for a few seconds, looking up at last with a rather painful smile. "I guess we could go stay with Agasa-san, if-- if you can't bear me like this--- " 

_*Oh, Ran..... No way. They can throw me out if they want, but not you. That's not fair.....*_ Conan closed his eyes briefly, feeling cold. 

Mouri-san sat silent, but the look on his face said volumes. Eri-san spoke for them both, wiping at her eyes with the back of one hand. "Ran….. if you think that we'd just _abandon_ you, you're out of your mind! We're your _parents---_ that won't change, no matter what else does." She attempted a wavery smile. "And as for making a choice….." The woman sighed, and her eyes suddenly seemed older than before. "I guess it's hard for any parent to ever believe that their child is adult enough to think about choosing for themselves; it goes with the job. We know how stubborn you are---" and she reached across, taking her husband's hand in hers; "--- you take after us both a great, great deal. And you're right; sooner or later you would've left home for one reason or another…." Beside her Mouri-san muttered something under his breath; his hand tightened in his wife's, making her wince slightly. 

"But, Ran….. _this_ isn't exactly what we expected you to do….." 

That was all it took. Eri burst into tears and reached across, drawing her daughter's small form into her arms. For a moment Ran stiffened a little, fighting her own emotions; then she relaxed at last into the embrace, accepting the comfort that her mother so desperately wanted to give. 

Conan sighed, feeling something tight and hard deep inside his heart loosen. _*I guess it's okay.... for you, at least. Me? Who gives a damn about me? I got you into this, no matter what you say. I'm not needed here right now, that's for sure.*_ Unobtrusively the boy slid down off the couch, slipping silently away towards his room. 

Even as he drew his wife and daughter close to him, Mouri Kogoro's dark, intent gaze followed him down the hall. 

***********************************************

He hadn't expected to sleep, but somehow he had managed it (though his tossing and turning had the sheets looking like an army had marched through, complete with combat boots and tanks). 

And now.... he was awake? _*Uhhhh…..*_ Something--- a noise?--- had awakened him. Slowly Conan reached out a hand to turn on the bedside light. 

Oh. He had expected this, really. _*And it's better than, oh, say, being shot while sleeping, right? …..Right.*_

Mouri-san sat in a chair at the foot of the bed, his eyes glinting eerily in the semi-darkness. Those eyes were fixed on Conan's face, burning like hot coals. The detective's face was drawn with weariness, but there was a grim, uncompromising set to his jaw. 

_*Guess it's my turn to talk now.....*_

"Boy. _Kudo._ Give me one good reason _why_ I shouldn't kill you for what's happened to my daughter." The cold fury in the voice made him momentarily speechless. 

He closed his eyes, rubbing at them with his fingers. "I wish I could." Conan's own voice sounded bleak in his ears. "No matter what I say--- no matter what I do, no matter what _Ran_ says..... this is my fault." He looked up directly into the burning eyes. "I've spent a year with you, living under a false name, under false pretenses," he stated flatly. "I've lied, I've lived off of your generosity, I've done everything I could think of just to keep my secret--- just to stay alive." 

"I was desperate; I had lost my home, my body, my _life._ You and Ran gave me everything… safety, shelter, a _new_ life. And now---" he drew in a deep, hard breath; "--- now--- God; what she's done for me--- I can't begin to tell you what it feels like." Pain knotted in his throat. 

_"Try."_ How could Mouri-san's gaze be so hot when his voice could freeze water? 

Conan laughed softly, bitterly. "How does it feel? Like.... like the bottom has fallen out of my world--- again." 

"Like I'd give anything, _anything_ to make things better..... to put them back the way they were before. My life, any chances I have of a cure, whatever--- but I can't. I can't, and that's just the way things are." Mouri-san's hands gripped the edge of the chair, white-knuckled in the shadows. 

"Ran's given me a gift so large that I don't know how to really _accept_ it. She's given me her life, in a way. How do you _think_ it feels?....... And right now, there's just one thing I can think of to tell you that might make it worth your while to leave me alive." 

At the foot of the bed, the older man sat as still as stone, waiting. 

Conan--- _Shinichi---_ fixed his eyes on Mouri Kogoro's, and all childishness had long since vanished from them. "I made Ran a promise: _that I would never leave her again._ She took that capsule so she could be with me, so we could stay together--- the only thing I can do now for her is keep my promise. And if you kill me..... I can't even do _that."_ He sighed then, a long sigh, and closed his eyes. 

"I love your daughter, Mouri-san. I won't let her down; I'd die first. I won't break my promise, not if I can help it." 

_*And if that's not enough for you, Mouri-san..... Oji-san..... I guess you'll just have to kill me, won't you? Be sure and hide my body well--- wouldn't want Ran to have a convicted murderer for a father. Don't let yourself get caught.*_ Conan felt oddly distant, a peculiar mixture of despair and calm flooding through him. The silence in the room was overwhelming; it filled the world. 

At last he heard a faint rustle from the foot of the bed. The boy opened his eyes; Mouri-san was standing, staring at him with a strange little smile on his face. His eyes glittered. 

"Fine. _Fine._ So you promised to stay with her? Then..... that's exactly what you're going to do." He leveled a long finger at Conan's disbelieving face. "You're going to _keep_ your promise, boy--- Conan--- _Kudo._ And trust me: your life depends on it. You're going to stay right here, just like you've been for the last year, and you're going to see to it that Ran manages; that's your responsibility. And if you screw up---" Mouri Kogoro's eyes narrowed and his hands made involuntary twisting motions; Conan winced, picturing his neck in that viselike grasp. 

"---If you screw up, that'll be the _end_ for you. That's _**my**_ promise, 'Conan-kun.'" 

Conan swallowed hard. He believed him, all right; oh yes, he believed him. The boy sank back against the pillows as the detective moved towards the door, exiting into the dark hallway without a backwards glance. 

The door clicked shut. He snapped the light off. 

The boy lay back, shivering a little with adrenaline. _*Right. Well, I'm not buried in a vacant lot somewhere and I'm not out on the streets; I'm still alive..... I think I'm kind of surprised, actually.*_ He closed his tired eyes. _*You know, God, I didn't really need any more incentive to keep my promise to Ran; I really didn't. But I guess I owed Mouri-san that little conversation. I guess I owe him a lot of things.*_

Sleep was a long time in coming. 

***********************************************

Some time later….. 

Another noise. _*Urrrgh…..*_ Awake. _*Now what?? Oh….. right. Her turn. This is gonna be grim.*_

His visitor had pulled up a chair beside his bed this time; that was probably what had awakened him. And the light was on, too. Eri-san was a very efficient woman. 

Ran's mother sat looking at him calmly, wrapped in an oversized bathrobe of her husband's. _*Looks like the reconciliation's going well, anyway.*_ Her eyes were reddened with tears and lack of sleep, but their gaze was needle-sharp. Conan sat up, pushing the covers back. _*Oh shit; this is a mother, RAN's mother--- not much chance of being cut any slack here. I… think I should be more worried about what she's going to do to me than about what Mouri-san had planned.*_ He opened his mouth, trying desperately to think of what to say. 

That was when he noticed the kitchen knife in her hands. It was small, shiny, and undeniably sharp-looking. 

_*Eeeeep.*_ The boy felt himself go pale. 

_*Murderers, Black Org operatives--- fine; I can handle them. Angry mothers with knives--- nooo….*_ He froze, feeling horribly vulnerable. 

Eri-san leaned forward, pinning him with her stare. In a low, deceptively gentle tone, she spoke: "My daughter and I have just spent several very informative hours together. I'm not going to ask you for an apology or an excuse--- from everything she's told me, nothing you said could have changed her mind once she'd made it up." The older woman sighed, her eyes momentarily distant. "Ran has always made her own decisions….. always, even when she was--- small. I can accept that. And I suppose that, in time, I'll get used to her being like she is now. I'll have to, won't I? I'm her mother." 

Her face was so like her daughter's….. There was that same look of unshakable determination, for one thing; that expression that told you that, no matter what, she would do whatever she had to do to keep her word. 

Conan really wished that she would put the knife away. 

Eri-san's gaze hardened, her eyes boring into his. "There's just one thing I wanted to make clear between us, Kudo Shinichi. And that's this: _If you break my daughter's heart, I will kill you._ Do you understand me?" Her hands tightened around the small, sharp blade in emphasis. 

He could only nod. 

She smiled at him briefly, brightly, tucking her cutlery into the bathrobe's pocket. "I thought you might." Standing, Ran's mother stretched a bit and turned towards the door. "Goodnight then….. Conan-kun." As she turned the knob, she looked over her shoulder at him. "You know, Ran really _does_ love you." 

He had to try twice before he could find his voice. "I know. I--- love her too." 

Still smiling, she nodded calmly. "Good. You had _better."_

The door clicked shut behind her. 

Conan lay back in the bed again, deflating like a balloon. _*And I'm supposed to sleep after that? Thank God Ran doesn't have any sisters or brothers--- they'd be lined up down the hallway for their little chats.*_ He turned off the light with a slightly shaky hand, then sank down between the sheets. 

_*God. Most parents have fits when some guy takes their 'little girl' away from them; I'll bet I'm the first one in history to nearly get killed for giving her back.*_

He pulled the covers completely over his head and tried to sleep, resolving silently to be very, very nice to Ran's mother for the rest of his life. Women were _much_ more direct than men about their intentions. 

***********************************************

Some time even later….. 

_*Urrrrghhh? What--- now who wants to talk to me? Do they want to kill me too?*_ There had been another noise. *Ran??* 

No; the room was dark. But over by the window----- a figure, face pale in the moonlight----- 

Conan blinked, then blinked again. There was no-one there. No-one; the window was empty. _*But--- huh; I could've sworn….. I thought I saw somebody standing there, somebody small; a boy? a girl? But nobody's there. So what the hell woke me up?*_

But the room _*was*_ empty, or at least he thought so; he turned on the light to make certain. Nothing, no-one. 

_*Just your imagination, Kudo. Now you're making up anxieties; you're gonna need a psychiatrist if you keep this up.*_ Like he needed something else to worry about….. The boy snapped off the light for the fourth time that night and tried, again, to sleep. 

But as he slid slowly downwards into warm, comforting darkness, Conan couldn't quite escape the feeling that unseen eyes were still watching him from the shadows….. 

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_So..... Whatcha think? I'll have Chapter two out as soon as possible; this is going to be interesting to write. And if some of you think that maybe Mouri-kun was being a bit harsh on Conan--- well, put yourself in his place, and add in HIS temper! Errrrgh; I think I'd have hightailed it for the hills, myself. Anyway, hope you liked Chapter one; stay tuned, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel..... Ysabet _


	2. Small Changes

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Hiya..... Finally, Chapter Two! It's, ummm, a bit LARGER than planned..... I don't expect the next five or so chapters to be quite this humongous, but one never knows. Please critique! This is a pretty damned indepth storyline, and the more I hear from y'all, the quicker it'll get written (I need the impetus!). Thanks, and don't kill me over the soppy bits, okay? Behold the power of Cheese..... Ysabet, Ducking For Cover

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Second Wind

By Ysabet

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Chapter Two: Small Changes

-----chasing him, there was something chasing him----- he could feel it close behind him, knew that any second now the cruel, angry hands would close painfully on his shoulders and then around his throat to choke his life away---- oh God, no matter how far or fast he ran it was always there, just behind him, never tiring or slowing or giving up, and the loud beat of hard leather soles slapping on the broken concrete underfoot drummed in his ears, drowning out his heartbeat, drowning out his ragged breathing, thud! thud! thud! thud! THUD! THUD! **THUD!-----**

***THUD!!***

"Aaahhh!!" Conan thrashed against the thing that was holding him down, fought wildly against the enveloping, smothering grip of---

__

--- cloth?

Heart pounding in his ears, he struggled to calm himself. _What_ the--? Ohhh..... He was--- laying on the floor, on the rug, all tangled up in sheets and his blanket and---

--- and he had fallen out of bed.

__

*Oh. Guess that explains why I'm lying here on my butt.....* Slowly he levered himself up to sit panting and cross-legged in the pile of covers, scrubbing at his eyes with both hands. _*Nightmare..... just a stupid nightmare. Breathe, Kudo you idiot, breathe.....*_ He swore under his breath, rubbing one abused knee ruefully. _*What the hell was I dreaming...? I was running, being chased by, um.....*_ Already the vivid terror was fading, wreathing away like wisps of smoke in a strong wind. _*Well, whatever it was, it didn't catch me--- *_

The memories of the previous day began filtering back then, and the boy shivered in reaction. His world had turned upside down (again!), and it was the First Day of the Rest of his Life, Act Three.

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*Aaack. Maybe things would be easier if whatever-it-was had caught me.*

Conan pulled himself to his feet and stretched; the morning air was a little chilly, making him hug his thin shoulders against a sudden rise of gooseflesh. Now why in the world was the window open? He didn't recall opening it the night before--- Oh well, maybe Eri-san had left it that way---

A series of apprehensive thoughts surfaced at the memory of Eri-san sitting beside his bed, smiling and pocketing her small shiny knife. God, _what_ an evening he had had; he'd only been up a few minutes and already his head was beginning to ache.

Of course, it wasn't as though nothing _good_ had happened.....

__

*Ran-----*

He shivered again, but this time the feeling was oddly pleasant: warmth, relief, and a strange guilty delight. _*Ran.*_

*You're with me now. I won't lose you now. And that's worth... everything.*

She'd be in the kitchen, of course--- well, if there was any mercy in the world she would be; Conan had tasted her mother's cooking before, and it was (quite literally) a bit more than he could stomach this early in the day. Raising his head as he rummaged through his drawers for clothing, the boy sniffed; ahhhh, food. Tea, frying things--- life was already looking up.

Still struggling to pull a t-shirt over his head, Conan scuffed his feet into slippers and padded down the hall towards the rest of the world, leaving the chilly room behind him. Unnoticed, his curtains fluttered in the morning breeze that wafted through the open window.

*******************************************************************

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*Now there's a sight you don't see every day.*

Standing on a makeshift step-stool cobbled together from several old phone directories, Mouri Ran was directing her mother in cooking the morning's breakfast. Even with the stool's assistance her small form barely reached her mother's shoulder; as she reached past the woman's form to deftly flip an egg over with a spatula, she tugged unconsciously at the oversized t-shirt that was currently serving as a nightgown.

The day before it would've fit its owner smoothly; now the neckline was precariously overlarge and the hem flapped against her calves.

Conan crossed his arms and leaned against the doorjamb, a smile tugging at his lips. Ran looked..... well, she looked _adorable_ actually, her heart-shaped face frowning in concentration, her small hands on her hips as she explained to her mother that one should only brew tea for a few minutes, not a half hour. With a sigh she reached for the teapot, intending to pour the bitter over-brewed liquid into the sink; but the heavy pot's handle slid through her grasp and she exclaimed in dismay as it headed for the floor---

--- only to be stopped by another pair of small hands. Conan/Shinichi smiled up at Ran, helping to lift the pot into the sink. "Good morning....."

Dark eyes smiled back at him as their fingers brushed against one another's on the handle; a faint blush stole over the young girl's skin. "Good morning Conan-kun--- I mean, Shinichi---"

He chuckled, feeling his own face warming. "Maybe we'd better stick to 'Conan-kun'; you're used to it, and so am I." As the teapot settled into the sink with a metallic clatter, the boy stepped back a little to look at the woman who watched him calmly, pot-holder in one hand. His smile faded slightly. "Ummm, good morning Eri-san---"

__

*Got any cutlery on you, hmmm?*

She smiled down at him. "And good morning to you... Conan-kun. " One eyebrow arched a bit at his obvious discomfiture. "Did you sleep well?" Nonchalantly the older woman turned her attention back to the stove and stirred a pot with a fork. Ran sighed and passed her a spoon.

Conan shifted uneasily; he would have to be careful around this lady--- she didn't miss a thing. Craning his head, he tried to see what was bubbling away on the stove; reflexively Ran smacked away his reaching fingers, snapping "Hands off, Conan-kun!" without a second thought. There was an immediate, embarrassed pause as she froze in place, an arrested look on her childish face. "Ummmm..... sorry--- habit--- I mean, I've been thinking of you as a little kid for a _year_ now, and---"

He had to grin. "Takes one to know one, Ran-kun..."

She stuck out her tongue.

Kisaki Eri shook her head. "You two--- Ran, if you keep doing things like _that_ you won't have any problem convincing anyone that you're a little girl, that's certain. Do you remember what I told you when you were... small?"

The girl frowned, remembering; then her face cleared. Rolling her eyes, she recited: "'If you keep making faces, one of these days the wind's going to change and you're going to freeze like that.'" Hands on her hips, the teenager-turned-small-child glared up at her mother. "You know, Mom, I almost think you're _enjoying_ this."

Her mother chuckled. "Well, it's been a rather long time since I had a little one around to take care of, you know; one misses that sort of thing after it's gone. No, no---" and she held out a hand to stop Ran's imminent protests, "--- I know, you can take care of yourself, ne?" The girl shook her head and hopped down from her improvised stepstool, drying her hands on a dishtowel. She scowled terribly up at her mother, lower lip pouting. "I've been taking care of myself--- _and_ Dad--- for years now," she pointed out, hitching the oversized t-shirt up at the neck as it threatened to slide down one thin shoulder. A thin, hissing whistle made them all jump, and Eri looked around, mildly perplexed. Ran nodded towards the stove. "Kettle's boiling..." She slipped past Conan and pattered across the kitchen towards the tea canister.

He watched her as she worked, small hands deft and careful on the teabags; God, she _was_ adorable. _*And wouldn't she put me into a wall if I said that out loud? Might be worth it, though, just to see her blush_.* Ran held the pot up for her mother; as the hot water was poured in, Eri-san sighed. "It's just... Ran, face it: you're a _little girl_ again; there's going to be some things that you just can't do anymore. You're going to have to accept help from other people now--- that's a hard thing, I know, especially for you." She tucked a strand of hair behind one ear and took the teapot from her daughter, carrying it in to place it on the table. As she turned back towards the kitchen, Ran sighed again, made a face and quietly slipped a hotpad beneath the pot.

Leaning against the doorjamb, Conan stifled a chuckle. Eri-san was _hopeless_ in a kitchen.

Hitching the t-shirt up again, Ran folded her arms stubbornly. "Mom--- please, please try and remember: _I'm not really a child._ I'm still me! Still your 17-year-old daughter! I know what I look like--- I spent enough time in front of the mirror this morning--- but inside, I'm still _me._ Shinichi, **tell** her....."

"Ran--- she's _right."_

"Huh??" The small girl stared at him where he stood, hands in pockets. Her mother's hand paused briefly as it reached for a spatula.

Conan ducked his head a little, a rather pained expression on his face. "It's one of the hardest things I've had to learn over the past year: that I can't do the things I used to be able to do, that I do have to accept help. I'm a *kid*--- physically, at least. The first time I tried to pick something up that was really heavy I nearly broke something; the first time I tried to fight against somebody I could've held my own against _before_ nearly got me killed." 

Ran made a faint protesting murmur, looking uncertain; her eyes still held a familiar flare of stubbornness. "But---"

The boy shook his head and sighed, rumpling his hair with one hand; there was nothing childlike about the rueful look that he flashed at her. "It's kind of humiliating--- a bit like the way you feel when you've just gotten over being sick and you can't manage as well as you did when you were healthy... except that you feel fine. Lots of energy--- you're just _weaker_ than before. You can't reach things, and you have to ask people to get them down for you; you can't carry things, so you have to get somebody else to do it. You can't do the things that kids can't do, so you have to get other people to do them for you. It's... hard. It'd be easier to do stuff twice over yourself than to ask for help, sometimes... but that's just the way things are."

She stood staring at him, frowning. The dark eyes were a little wary, beginning to understand.

"And then there's the whole 'social' bit--- you look like a kid, so you have to _act_ like a kid in front of people. Body language, vocabulary, everything. *That's* harder than it sounds, too." He smiled up at her wryly. "Accepting help is--- difficult; but you have to learn to do it. It's just a fact of life for me... for us."

At the stove, Eri muttered something uncomplimentary as the spatula slipped from her hand to land with a clatter on the floor. Still frowning, Ran picked it up, rinsed it, wiped it, and handed it back. She turned back to Conan, her brows drawn down. "But--- Shini-... Conan-kun... We're not really kids---"

He cut her off gently. "No, and that's actually the worst danger of all. It's so easy to _forget--- _and, Ran, remember the Black Organization? Our lives depend on our putting on a good act. And it really isn't easy; think about it. Have you _ever_ seen a little kid stay still for more than three minutes at a time?--- nope, me neither. Kids _fidget._ Now do you see what I mean about 'body language'? You're going to have to learn so much so quickly, Ran---"

"--- and you're going to _teach_ her, _aren't you_, 'Conan-kun'?" The deep, rather harsh voice made them all start.

Mouri Kogoro lounged against the doorway behind them, arms crossed and chin jutting out. He chuckled at Conan's nervous look, fixing him with one darkly amused eye. "Don't look so jumpy, boy--- I'm not going to eat you." His eyes softened slightly as he looked past him towards his wife, then even more at the sight of his transformed daughter. "Ran..... uhhm, are you--- that is, how do you feel?" His hesitation was palpable.

The teenager-turned-small-girl blew out her breath in an exasperated sigh. "Good morning Dad, and I'm _fine._ I wish you and Mom would stop treating me like I had some sort of disease--- it's not helping." She surveyed her father, fire kindling in her large eyes. "And don't pick on Shin-, umm, Conan-kun..... He's going to have a hard enough time coaching me through this as it is." 

A trace of suspicion crossed Ran's face then, and she looked from one to the other of the kitchen's three occupants. "Does anybody want to _tell_ me something? You two haven't been threatening him, have you? Because if you have---" Her small fists tightened and her chin came up belligerently. Eri looked uncomfortable and Mouri-san defiant; Conan felt himself reddening--- he spoke up quickly before either of the two could provide Ran with any more rope to hang themselves with. "No, no, nothing like that; we just... cleared a few things up last night after you went to bed." He stepped forward, a hasty smile on his face.

"Don't worry about me.... Ran-kun." The smile grew and became a real one. "It's been a _long_ time since I could call you that, hmm? It's been 'Ran-neechan' for the past year." The suspicious look was still there, but it was fading. Distraction, he needed a distraction.... Conan reached out and rumpled her hair. "And I've been wishing I could do _that_ back to you for a year, too." The outraged look on her face turned into laughter; she swatted at his hand again, then moved back to the stove. Breathing a sigh of relief, the boy turned away towards his place at the table in the next room.

Mouri-san had just taken his own seat. Over steepled hands he stared Conan down, eyebrows beetled. "Listen, boy," he began hurriedly, half under his breath. "Ran doesn't need to know--- that is, our discussion last night---"

"--- was private. No problem." The boy sighed, resting his chin on one hand. He arched an eyebrow as he looked up at the detective, saying softly: "And you don't have to make any more threats. You didn't have to last night; I meant what I said..... I'd do anything for her. That's my promise, 'Oji-san.'" And he grinned a most unchildlike grin, a sardonic light in his eyes.

For a moment the older man looked a little taken aback; then his usual manner returned, and he nodded. His moustache twitched. "Fine. We understand each other, then." He shot Conan a dark look, half-frowning, half-bemused. "I can't get used to _talking_ to you like this--- like an adult. Makes me feel like a real idiot for not noticing, all this past year..." The look grew darker. "I'm not too *happy* about feeling like an idiot, boy." 

Conan--- _Shinichi_--- snorted. "If you knew how hard I've had to work sometimes to keep my secret..... You came far too close for comfort, way too many times." _*Guess a little flattery can't hurt, not to mention outright lies; I won't catch this fly with vinegar. Yeah, I had to work, but it was Ran who kept nearly finding me out.* _

Mouri Kogoro threw out his chest a bit and chuckled, a rather wicked sound. "Good." He glanced towards the kitchen, smiling faintly at the duet of voices there; Ran's soft treble contrasted sharply with her mother's more adult tones. "You know, Ran's right; you're going to have a tough time of it." The smirk in his dark eyes said that he wasn't totally sorry about this.

The boy shrugged, his sharp eyes also turning towards the kitchen. "Hey, I've had practice--- a whole year of it." He made a sour face, pinching the bridge of his nose against his incoming headache. "The _first_ thing we've got to do is account for Ran's absence....."

"Already taken care of," said the cheerful, lilting voice from the kitchen, accompanied by a clatter of plates. "I-- that is, the 'old' me--- flew out last night on an emergency trip to America, to stay with my second cousin Inoko while she has her baby. Poor Inoko-chan's going to have all sorts of problems... Her husband's work keeps him traveling, and the baby's causing some complications, and there's just no one else that can help; she's desperate. So it's Cousin Ran to the rescue for a few weeks, and well--- after that... we'll think of something. And in the _meantime, _her cute little daughter 'Rin' has come to stay for a while! We'll take care of my school paperwork today." Her arms full of plates, she hefted her burden onto the table with a multiple _clink_ and began to set them out. Behind her daughter Eri-san walked carefully, carrying several covered platters.

Mouri Kogoro frowned at his daughter. "You don't have a cousin Inoko....." Eri placed the platters on the table, glancing sidelong at her husband with an amused shake of her head.

Reaching up, Ran tapped her father's nose with a chopstick. "I do _now."_ And she offered him a charmingly innocent little girl's smile. Conan ducked his head as he hid a grin. _*She learns FAST. Take that, Mouri-san!*_

*******************************************************************

School. _*Bleagh.*_ Conan winced as a particularly shrill gust of chatter from a gaggle of small girls tried to drill through his eardrums. 

Shifting his backpack to the left (the straps always seemed to bunch up his shirt), he shuffled his way through the hallway towards his classroom. All around him the corridors were packed with short, loud bodies; it was something that he had noticed in this imposed second childhood, that kids simply found it near-_impossible_ to shut up for any length of time. Maybe it was all that extra energy? They all seemed to be on a permanent sugar-high until they hit puberty.

Whatever. Today was going to be _Hell._

And here came three of the more exasperating envoys from Purgatory, thumping down the hall with their backpacks rattling. "Conan-kun! Teacher says we're gonna have a new girl in class! I hope she's cuuuuute!" shouted Genta, waving his arms wildly to keep from mowing down smaller students into oblivion as he skidded to a stop. Ayumi and Mitsuhiko pelted along behind him, their faces bright with curiosity. Conan sighed, feeling rather more _Shinichi_ than usual.

They weren't so bad, not really, not bad at all; they were just--- young. _*And they talk. A lot. And they follow me around and insist on being friends, and they get in trouble and have to be rescued, and Ayumi wants me for her boyfriend--- Oboy. That last little item's gonna be a problem, I'll bet. Ayumi's gonna have fits, and sulk, and make me feel guilty as hell. But she's a little girl, and Ran's... Ran.*_ It was times like this that he really missed his old high school.

But the kids _were_ his friends, odd as that was; he had become accustomed to their easy attitudes and the way they had whole-heartedly accepted him for himself. It was funny, but he actually had to act far *less* the child around these three real children--- they didn't care if he seemed a little odd; that was just how he was. He was _Conan-kun,_ and they didn't care if he knew things that they didn't or understood things that they couldn't; their young minds were as open as their hearts. They weren't stupid, and often they were surprisingly helpful.

__

*But they still talk way too much.*

With an internal groan, his Shinichi-self gave way to Conan, and Conan went to class. Under escort, of course.

*******************************************************************

Ran swallowed hard as she followed her mother down the stairs from her house; she hesitated for a long moment before taking the first small step onto the sidewalk, feeling excruciatingly conspicuous. _*Just keep calm, Ran; nobody's going to notice one more little girl. That's all you are now, just a little girl. Remember that, don't lose your cool, and everything'll be okay.*_

*But I wish Shinichi was here with me.* She stopped herself just short of clutching at her mother's skirt, taking a deep breath. She would _not_ panic.

The mother and daughter had several errands to take care of: shopping for new clothes, disenrollment from Ran's former school, that sort of thing. When she had hung back at the idea of going out in public in her new shape, Shinichi-Conan--- had simply cocked one eyebrow at her, saying softly "It's okay, Ran--- nobody looks twice at a little kid. You'll be fine."

Those eyes of his, those eyes that knew her so well: they had _understood_ what she was thinking. They had understood completely.

The girl had smiled rather wistfully at him; her mother and father were discussing something in the living room, and Ran had leaned forward over the breakfast table to touch the back of his hand softly with one small finger. "I--- it's hard to actually take the first steps, isn't it? Last night... talking about all of this, that was okay; but now I've got to go out and actually _get started-----_" She was silent then, and (she had to admit it, at least to herself) perhaps a little afraid.

The familiar-strange face opposite hers had saddened, a look of guilt and sorrow washing across his features. "I wish... there was something I could do, to make this all easier; I mean, something more than just tell you things." His eyes had dropped, and he had studied the pattern in the tablecloth with great interest. 

__

*Ran, you stupid--- way to go, girl, make him feel bad!* Impulsively she had taken his hand in hers; _*Shinichi...* _When the soft touch on the back of his hand had returned, warm fingers slipping around his, he had looked up... and suddenly it was _Shinichi_ whose heart those eyes held, not that of a small boy named Conan.

__

*I can't understand why I didn't see it before... I guess I just kept hoping, and he was clever enough to keep me hoping that he'd come back.* She had smiled at him again, glancing over her shoulder at her parents (who were still occupied, their voices softer than before). "Don't mind me, Shinichi..... I'll manage. This was what I wanted, after all; it really was--- it really is. And you're doing fine." Ran leaned across the table, and the boy's hand tightened on hers.

There had been a long silence between them then, almost an awkward one. _*Of course it's awkward. There aren't any rules for this sort of thing. But..... If we were both still our old selves... I think he'd kiss me right now. If we were both our old selves.....* _She had felt her cheeks burning, and from the slightly pole-axed look on the young face opposite hers he had been thinking along the same lines. "Ummm, R-Ran..... I---"

He had looked so silly, with his mouth opening and closing like a beached fish's; he had looked... adorable. And so very _Shinichi, _too, even though it was Conan that her eyes saw--- her heart knew better. So Ran had decided to take pity on him. Raising her free hand to her lips she had kissed her index finger and placed it across his lips, silencing him. "Shhhh. It'll be okay." 

With an explosive sigh, the boy had sat back in his chair, his ears crimson. "Uhhh.... Right. Okay." He couldn't seem to stop grinning; he was _still _grinning when he went out the door towards his school. Watching him leave, Mouri Ran had sighed to herself. _*It's going to be a LONG wait until we're... older, isn't it Ran-chan? A long wait until we're old enough for more than, well, promises. That's part of the price. A long wait--- so I guess someday we'll just have to make it worth our while, right?*_

And she had blushed again.....

----- and **_now_** she was on her way back out into the world for the first time as her new self. Trotting alongside her mother, Ran marveled rather breathlessly at the differences in stride length between them; did Shinichi-Conan feel like this, like everything was that much _bigger_ than he was, that much _faster,_ that much _stronger?_ And *she* had dragged him along in just this fashion, time after time.

It was exasperating. And a little terrifying, too. _*As if everybody but me has turned into giants.....*_

People passed her on all sides, going to work or breakfast or wherever... had they seemed this huge when she had really been a child? Or had she even noticed? Their faces seemed so much farther away than before. _*Weird; kids must recognize adults half the time by how their legs look--- that's what you see best when you're only about a meter tall. I feel like a midget.*_

*I wonder what Shinichi's doing right now?* Ran felt a soft rush of warmth running through her from her head to her toes. _*It still doesn't feel quite real, that he's been with me all along..... I still don't know whether or not I should be mad at him or what. Idiot. My idiot. He's been through an awful lot--- maybe we should just call it even and leave it at that. Besides.....*_ and she grinned to herself as she skipped a bit to catch up with her mother's pace; _*..... he's awfully cute when he's embarrassed, even as a kid. Maybe even especially as a kid.. And I have the feeling that he's going to be embarrassed a LOT over the next few days.*_

*'Conan's got a girlfriend, Conan's got a girlfriend'.....* The teasing refrain sang itself through her mind; she suppressed a giggle.

Tugging at Eri's hand a little Ran hung back, panting. "Mom... I can't keep up! Wait a second, will you?" Her small fingers clutched the older woman's fingers tightly.

Her mother glanced down, looking startled. "Sorry..... it's been a long time since I walked with someone as---" she hesitated, looking slightly guilty.

Ran raised her eyebrows with a quizzical smile, brushing a strand of hair back with her free hand. "As _little_ as I am? Mom, you're going to have to get used to the idea--- it's not going to go away." 

Eri shot her a slightly wide-eyed glance. "I just don't see how you can take this so--- so _calmly,_ Ran. I think I'd be half out of my mind by now," she muttered under her breath. Slowing, the mother and daughter stepped to one side of the flow of sidewalk traffic; a bench provided a welcome respite for the moment.

Swinging her legs, the young-woman-turned-young-girl shrugged. "If I think about it too hard I start hyperventilating," she said candidly, watching two giggling teenage boys in school uniforms pass by. _*Skipping school--- they'll get in trouble if they're caught. Hey--- no uniforms for me for a few years! THAT's a bonus, I guess!*_

"--- So what do you do, then?" asked her mother, frowning.

Ran shrugged; her face clouded a little. "I try not to think about it." She offered her mother a rather ironic smile.

*******************************************************************

Kisaki Eri looked sideways and a little askance at her small daughter; the little girl looked _so_ much like the one that she had raised for so short a span of years, the one that she had left behind when she and her husband had become estranged.....

..... until you noticed the expression; that's where things went odd. No seven-year-old had such penetrating eyes, such a contained, intent look. Well, except for Conan, of course. That boy--- Eri corrected herself; that _young man_ had quite a poker face. _*Must remember not to play cards with him, at least not for money...*_ she thought with a wry internal smile.

She had very carefully gauged just how much she wanted to startle him the previous night; the knife had been... well, _punctuation_ of a sort. Very effective punctuation. After all, as a lawyer Eri was used to playing to an audience, be it the judge or the jury; she was used to dealing with intelligent people, and it wouldn't have done to underestimate Shinichi/Conan's intellect.

So instead she had gone for his instincts. Waking up vulnerable and nervous, he had responded exactly as she hoped.

__

*Like a man menaced by a protective mother. And I don't think he'll be underestimating me any time soon, ne?* 

Eri glanced over at her daughter; Ran had an oddly wistful look on her small face as she stared unseeing across the moving bodies on the sidewalk. _*Wonder what she's thinking about? Shinichi, probably.*_ A fierce rush of love and anger warmed the older woman for a moment. _*Ran-chan, why couldn't you pick some nice, normal young man to fall in love with? For that matter, why couldn't you wait 'til you were **older** to fall in love at all?*_

*Hmph; I imagine mothers have been thinking that last thought about their daughters since the dawn of time. Well, at least he loves her too. And he'd better damn well keep on loving her. Or we'll have another late-night chat. And this time I won't be so **nice** about it.*

*******************************************************************

The taxi door shut behind Ran and her mother, leaving a rather bemused cabdriver staring after them. Eri looked reproachfully down at her daughter as they double-timed it towards the department store entrance, shaking her head. "Ran-chan, that was rather careless of you, wasn't it?"

The child pouted. "How was I to know he was listening?" She crossed her arms and stuck out her lower lip as they entered the building, looking every inch a sulky little girl.

Her mother made a _tsk_ing sound. "....Making a comment like 'Well, at least I don't have to wear a bra anymore' right there in the cab....." Ran snorted; her new lack of dimension in _certain areas_ was a touchy point. She headed instinctively over towards the Women's Wear department, only to be halted by Eri's hand on top of her head, which pivoted her around to face the opposite direction.

"Ah, Ran-chan..... this way." Ran looked in dismay towards the displays of girl's clothing (there was a certain aura of _pinkness_ there that she didn't like the looks of); muttering things better left unheard below her breath, she trailed behind her mother's determined form into the uncharted realms of Modern Children's Fashions.

Mom was smiling. Ran was *not.*

The ordeal that followed was both _instructive..... _and _wrong._ Terribly, terribly wrong; no-one should have to view that much pink in one day.

The opportunity for an entire new wardrobe (and accessories--- mustn't forget the accessories) was not to be taken lightly; but when that wardrobe ran heavily to Cute-Little-Outfits-That-Would-Look-Just-**_Darling_**-On-A-Seven-Year-Old-Girl, a young woman could only endure so much before she rebelled.

Mom's attention was on a rack of Pokymon pajama-sets; Ran shuddered and ducked behind a display counter and began to do a little shopping on her own. Fifteen busy minutes later the two met and conferred together.....

"Mom, I am _not_ wearing that. Look at it, it's got glittery little gold teddy-bears all over it, for God's sake!"

"But Ran, you'll look so _cute...._"

"...No. No feety-pajamas. And *definitely* no feety-pajamas with the entire Sailor Senshi twirling all over them. I'll get motion-sickness."

"But _Ran_-chan....."

(Grudgingly) "Okay.... I can wear this, and this. But we need jeans to go with that, and maybe some sort of overalls-set for that? Or shorts. And don't even *think* of looking at the pink stripy ones--- I saw you over by that rack a few minutes ago."

"But---" (wilting pathetically)

"Now _this_ is kind of nice--- and it'll go with two of the skirts I picked out. See?--- Mom, what's--- oh _Mom_, I am NOT wearing this; you really ought to know better." Ran surveyed the lacey, frilly, full-skirted pale lavender dress with acute distaste.

Her mother fingered a puffed sleeve wistfully, turning woeful eyes towards her daughter. "But Ran..... I could never get you to wear anything like it when you were--- were small _before,_ so I thought that now---"

Hands on her hips, the small girl interrupted her mother in a severe tone. "--- you thought that I'd wear it? _Mom,_ I had better taste than that when I was seven the _*first*_ time around..... Now look: I found this--- can we get it instead?--- hang on, I'll try it on for you---"

The dress wasn't lacey, or frilly, or lavender; on the other hand, it _was_ a rich, deep green velvet with an embroidered collar and cuffs. Ran held out her arms and turned in place, eyeing her small self critically in the full-length store mirror. "I still can't get used to how _skinny_ I look--- those scrawny little legs and everything! And my head looks so big..." Reaching out a hand, Eri stroked the soft material of a sleeve lovingly; there was a suspicious sniffling noise.

Ran cocked an eyebrow and stared up at her mother; "Mom..... what's wrong? You're not getting all emotional on me, are you?"

Her mother shook her head, smiling mistily. "Someday you'll understand, I suppose..... I guess I missed having my little girl around more than I thought." Surreptitiously she wiped at her eyes with a tissue, careful not to smudge her makeup. "When your father and I went our separate ways I lost out on a lot of things, including being with you. I know we saw each other frequently; you spent so many weekends with me, and there were those vacations..." Eri smiled to herself reminiscently, then sighed. "But it wasn't the same, you know; how many times did I miss tucking you in at night? How many times did you tell your _father_ what you did at school that day instead of _me?_ I missed out on so much---"

The young-woman-in-child's-clothing was now eyeing her mother with a certain alarm. "Umm, Mom---"

Stooping, Eri hugged her daughter fiercely to her, tears in her expressive eyes. "But I'm going to make it up to you, Ran! I'll be there for you this time around, I promise!" She laughed joyfully, releasing the girl and once more dabbing at her face.

Ran stepped back, her expression more than a little apprehensive. "That's-that's great, Mom. Uhmmmm, I'd better change out of this, okay? You just stay right here..." Stepping quickly back, she ducked into the changing-room and into a booth. _*..... Oh dear.....*_

*I didn't expect my mom to go all protective on me; this is going to be harder than I thought.*

*Shinichi..... I wonder what you're doing right now?*

*******************************************************************

Conan was having difficulties, three of them: small, medium and large.

"You KNOW the new girl, Conan-kun?!? Why didn't you *tell* us?!?" exclaimed Genta, crumbs tumbling down the front of his shirt as he chomped on another Pokistick at Recess. Mitsuhiko butted in, snatching a couple of Pokisticks from the shared package before Genta could grab them, passing one to Ayumi. 

"Did you know her when you lived in America?" 

"What's she like? Is she smart?"

"Does she know English? Is she cute?" 

A pause..... Conan winced; he could just _feel_ the question looming.....

"Was she your **_girlfriend_**?!?" Three voices chorused the question; three pairs of wide eyes (two pairs gleeful, one pair tearful) awaited the answer.

__

*WHY am I here? I mean, I could be home rotting my brain in front of the television..... I should've disguised my voice and called in sick today. Of course that'd mean that I'd have had to spend the whole day with Oji-san, and at this point I think I'd prefer hot pokers and thumbscrews to the Great Detective Mouri Kogoro. I'll bet he feels the same, too.* The boy looked at the expectant faces before him.

__

*Then again, maybe Mouri-san's not so bad----- and hot pokers and thumbscrews probably aren't really as painful as everyone says-----* Conan began to sweat.

*******************************************************************

Clothing had been purchased, along with shoes, backpack, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera ad infinitum..... Ran had managed (she thought) to talk her mother out of the lavender dress; but as they bundled their purchases into another taxi she thought she saw a suspicious scrap of pale-purple lace-trimmed ruffle peeping out of a bag. She raised wide, reproachful eyes to Eri's face, who flushed guiltily and shuffled the items around a bit, avoiding her daughter's gaze. Ran sighed.

Next stop: Ran's high school. Time to clean out her locker and unenroll. Time for 'Mouri Ran' to disappear and her little cousin 'Himitsu Rin' to take her place in the world.

*This* cabdriver paid very little attention to his passengers' conversation, preferring to crank up his radio to an annoying volume. "You know," said her mother, trying to speak over the background of Shonen Knife's latest hit, "you'll need to call me something other than 'Mom' if you're supposed to be--- what was the name again?"

Ran glared at the back of the cabby's head. "_'Rin'---_ Himitsu Rin. That's not so bad, is it?" she said, eyeing her mother's somewhat disconsolate face. Eri glanced down at her, a pained expression in her eyes. "No, suppose not..... I imagine you'll be calling me Oba-san from now on, won't you?" The look of gloom on her face was deep enough to swallow a battleship. "And your father will be Oji-san to you after this." Heartfelt sigh.

The small girl hesitated, torn between curiosity and a desire not to extend the boundaries of melodrama any further; however, after a moment's deliberation curiosity managed to win out. "Ummm, I don't want to intrude, Mom, but..... you and Dad seem to be, well--- getting along a _lot_ better lately, ne?"

Comparative silence; Shonen Knife was replaced on the radio by Destination, who wailed something about a pale green moon and tear-filled eyes. Ran tried to focus past the blare, watching her mother's reflection in the taxi's window. Was she _blushing?_

She **was**. _"Mom?"_

"Ah, well....." The older woman ducked her head a little, smiling. "I--- suppose you guessed some time ago that I had been working towards a reconciliation between us..... Ran, I honestly don't know if your father and I could ever live together again for any great period of time--- we've both grown used to living our own lives in our own ways--- but....." Eri raised her eyes to look back through the window, staring unseeingly out at the traffic. Her voice was a little unsteady when she spoke. "Your father has his faults, just as I do; but in our own ways we love each other still. Maybe it just took us a little longer than the usual to see that; maybe we just needed to be apart... to see that we needed to be together." She sighed, a long sigh full of regret for wasted time.

"Mom..... that's how it is for--- for Shinichi and I, you know."

"What?" Eri turned to look at her daughter; the young face was pensive, the large eyes soft with emotion. Ran drew a deep breath and spoke, her words nearly lost against the blaring music. "You know. The 'being apart' and 'being together' bits. That's how it feels." She smiled then, a very unchildlike smile as filled with sadness as it was with satisfaction. "I'm glad you and Dad are getting along like you are--- I just wish that you didn't have to deal with all _this--"_ and she gestured rather guiltily towards her reduced self "--at the same time. I don't imagine it's helping....."

She was more than a little startled, therefore, when her mother chuckled ruefully and said "Ran-chan, you'd be surprised. You really would."

They pulled up to the school then, and there was no more time for conversation. The driver was paid to wait; Ran gulped nervously and clung to her mother's hand as the school doors closed behind them with the usual heavy thud. _*Unless Ai finds a cure I won't be coming back here again for years. What a weird thought; I'm going to miss everybody a lot. Then again, that means I don't have to take that Chemistry quiz next Tuesday.....*_

Approaching the main counter, Eri smiled at the bored student aide lounging there. The student straightened up, bowing slightly. "Gomen... may I help you, ma'am?"

The older woman smiled charmingly. "Yes..... I need to disenroll my daughter, Mouri Ran; unfortunately she's needed out of the country right now to help in a family emergency, and she'll be continuing her schooling there." The student nodded and turned away to find a superior.

As the discussion continued and paperwork was brought out, Ran grew increasingly uneasy. What if somebody that she knew came in? What if one of her teachers showed up? What if somebody recognized---

--- and in the middle of that thought, Potential Catastrophe in human form pushed the office door open with one elbow and stepped inside. Suzuki Sonoko, large as life and twice as talkative, lugging a huge box in her arms. Ran felt her eyes widen; she slid desperately behind her mother's legs to hide.

"Oh! Kisaki-san! Are you here to pick up Ran-chan's things? I cleaned out her locker for you---" The young woman gestured with her chin at the large box that was threatening to slip from her grip; "--- one of our teachers told me she was going to be in America for a little while and she'd need her stuff, so here you go!" Her eyes flashed with excitement. "So Ran's going to get to go to the States... I didn't even _know_ she had a cousin there! How long will she be gone? Maybe if my dad flies to California on business again I can go along and visit---"

The cheerful stream of chatter was cut off as the box finally won the battle and headed floorwards; Eri gave an exclamation and reached out with both hands to stop its descent, leaving Ran exposed and nervous beneath the counter's ledge. As Sonoko and Eri womanhandled the carton onto a handy chair, the child tried to shrink into the shadows without any obvious moves. _*Oh please, Sonoko-chan, don't see me, don't notice me---*_

But of course she did. Her eyes widened as she dusted off her hands. "Now who's _this_?" Sonoko stepped forward, smiling.....

The young woman knelt in front of the little girl, who quickly dashed to the relative safety of the back of Eri-san's legs. Sonoko looked slightly surprised. "Oh, _shy_, hmmm? Well, don't be scared of Sonoko-chan, silly." Still smiling, she reached out a finger and tipped Ran's face upwards towards hers. "Well, you're a pretty little thing, aren't you...? Funny, but you remind me of someone---" A faint frown crinkled her nose as she tried to work the thought out.

"She--- she's Ran's cousin..... she arrived last night; she'll be, um, staying with us for a while." Eri's voice was ever-so-slightly shaky; thankfully, Sonoko seemed oblivious to her nervousness. "Cousin??" The teenager's expression cleared. _"That's_ why you look so familiar! I swear, you could almost _be_ Ran from when we were kids together!" She laughed. "So what's your name, cutie?" She tousled Ran's hair playfully; Ran ducked behind her mother's legs again, peering out with one eye. "R-Rin..." came the muffled reply.

"Rin? And you're her cousin? Oh, that's cute; Ran goes away, and Rin comes to stay!" Sonoko giggled at her own joke. She turned back to the older woman, who was apparently trying to calm her heartbeat down by fanning herself with the disenrollment paperwork. "Well, when Ran comes back we'll have a matched pair, won't we? Soooo.... how long will she be gone--?"

Eri cleared her throat. "Ah, as for that... we don't exactly know. That's why I'm disenrolling her from school. She'll be continuing her---"

Sonoko cut her off. "--- You... don't know?? You mean she could be gone for a_ long time? _But---" The young woman's usual cheerfulness was fading into hurt; in a second she looked ready to burst into tears. "She didn't even say _goodbye_ to me! And I thought she was my best friend!!" she wailed, drawing a wince from 'Rin.'

Eri looked distinctly guilty; "I know she wanted to call you, but she left early last evening--- it was an emergency, you know---"

'Rin' looked down at her shoes, still gripping the backs of her mother's slack-clad legs. _*Every word you just said was true, Mom; I did 'leave' early last evening, and it was an emergency of sorts. Poor Sonoko....*_

*I wish I could tell you all about this, about Shinichi and me.... you'd think it was **so** romantic! And I'm going to miss you too.* She felt her eyes fill with tears--- and then, like an electric shock, Ran had an idea. _*It's a little sneaky, but.....*_ In a small voice she spoke up. "R-Ran... Ran-neechan said that she'd call you tonight, after her plane landed in America. I talked to her on the phone."

Eri looked down at her small daughter in alarm, but Sonoko seemed to take comfort from her words. "Well--- I guess if it was an emergency..... And it's not like I'll never see her again, will I?"

__

*No, Sonoko-chan, I'll be back to my normal self in about a decade. I wonder if you'll recognize me then?*

*******************************************************************

"Two hours to go...." muttered Conan to himself; "...just two hours--- I can take two more hours, I'm an intelligent, capable person, and I can do this. Just two more hours....."

__

"Coooooo-nan-kuuuuuun....." _*Crap.*_

Two grinning faces popped up, one on either side of him from where they had apparently been hiding behind his bench. With one accord Genta and Mitsuhiko moved around to sit next to their friend, who rolled his eyes wearily.

"C'mon, Conan-kun--- tell us about your _girl_-friend....." Genta elbowed him in the ribs. "Is she as pretty as Ayumi-kun?"

Mitsuhiko elbowed him in the other side. "I bet she's not. I bet Ayumi-kun's prettier, and that's why he won't tell us anything. I bet she's _ugly_." The thin grade-schooler jumped as Conan turned on him sharply. "She is not! She's the most _beautiful---_ umm, I mean---" Both kids stared round-eyed at the shorter boy between them; then their gazes met, and (as if they had practiced for weeks) they chorused in letter-perfect, grinning, off-key unison: 

"_Conan-_kun has a _girrrrrl-_friend! _Conan-_kun has a _girrrrrl-_friend! _Conan-_kun has a _girrrrrl-_friend! _Conan-_kun has a....."

__

*Aaaaaaaaaghhhh!!!* For the briefest of moments, _Shinichi_ flickered in the boy's eyes as he wondered if murdering the two kids would get him tried as an adult or a minor. _*Justifiable homicide, for sure; there's not a judge in the land that would convict me.*_

He ducked his head and gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the impromptu musical accompaniment happening just above him before any more of his brain-cells went down in flames. _*Just two more hours, Kudo. Just-two-more-hours-----*_

*******************************************************************

Lunchtime.

"Hm. I'll have miso soup and the salad--- no dressing--- with green tea, please." The small girl folded her menu and placed it on the table. The waiter frowned; there was something amiss here. He nodded at the child's companion. "Your order, ma'am?"

"The same, though with the shrimp dressing. But... change hers to the Children's Combo #1, please, and add a side of takoyaki." The waiter's frown faded; he smiled indulgently at the little girl, who sputtered a bit and stuck out her lower lip in an obvious sulk. _*Cute little thing--- must be trying to imitate her mom, ne?*_ Thinking fond thoughts of his own daughter, he hurried away to place the order.

Behind him, two voices muttered a _sotto voce_ duet:

"But _Mom-_umm, 'Oba-san' I mean--- I'm on a _diet!_ I can't eat all that!"

"Rin-chan, firstly you don't need to go on a diet now, *do* you? And secondly, trust me on this one; I remember how much you could eat during your _first_ childhood--- you won't have any trouble. And besides..... the takoyaki's for me, actually."

*******************************************************************

Two hours later.....

__

*I guess I really should've known better; I mean, I've taught the kids how to shadow people, right? So the fact that they're following me home is sort of a compliment, right? Or it would be, if I hadn't spotted them less than five minutes after I left school. Gotta work on that. Genta has to realize that what he calls a whisper most other people think of as a bellow.* 

Actually, Ayumi was the best of the three 'Child Detectives' at skulking; if Conan hadn't expected her to be with the other two he might've actually missed her for ten minutes or so. He glanced over his shoulder and sighed, hitching up his backpack; there they were, three heads peeking around a phone-booth. 

A glint of mischief entered the boy's eyes and he grinned to himself a little. _*Just a bit further, and I can get a little revenge for today's torture. Let's see, if I go around this corner, I should be able to double back---*_ He turned right, then slipped into the doorway of his favorite newsstand. With a quick "Konichiwa, Oji-san!" at the proprietor (who waved a preoccupied hand at his shortest-albeit-frequent customer), he slipped past the adults in the store and out the back entrance. Grinning broadly, Conan exited a few feet behind the three kids, who were only just now leaving their hiding-place and conferring in what they obviously believed to be low voices.

Slipping his bow-tie voice-modulator out of his pocket and twisting the dial produced wonderful results: a hissing, menacing snarl of _"FREEZE! HANDS IN THE AIR, YOU KIDS!!"_

Lovely. Two horrified squawks and one squeak, and three grade-schoolers froze in place with their hands over their heads. Conan heard a very young-boy laugh-- and realized that it came from his own lips. So did the three children before him; hands still held high, they each swiveled in place to face him with expressions ranging from righteous indignation to outrage.

__

"Conan-kun!!!"

Hands on hips, he surveyed them sternly. "Why are you following me home??" They shuffled their feet, looking guilty.

"We smell a rat." Mitsuhiko watched a lot of subtitled foreign gangster movies; it showed. "We want to meet your gir-" Conan shot the other boy a warning glance as Ayumi sniffled; "-your friend from America....."

Ayumi sniffled again, harder. _*Oh boy..... I'd better nip this in the bud, or she'll make Ran's life miserable.*_ He sighed a long sigh, then nodded. "Okay... but let me and Ayumi-kun go first; Rin-kun's kind of shy."

"'Rin'?" Their ears perked up. Conan nodded, and he and the little girl moved on, leaving the other kids to follow a few minutes later.

As they walked, he surreptitiously studied the expression on his companion's face: woebegone, jealous, uncertain... _*Don't forget, Kudo: her emotions are just as real as yours or anybody else's. Don't fall into the trap of thinking they don't matter just because Ayumi's a kid. If she's unhappy, deal with it and do it right.*_ He felt a stab of guilt over the pain in the child's eyes; she was obviously taking the matter to heart. "Ummm, Ayumi-kun.....?"

She sniffled.

"Are you--- mad at me?" He felt profoundly awkward; females, no matter their age, seemed to be amazingly proficient at making males feel that way. It came with the chromosomes, apparently. "I don't want you to be unhappy..... I, well, I know you wanted to be my girl-friend and all that---" Conan ground to a halt at the wounded look that she turned on him then.

__

*Ayumi-kun, you're awfully cute; but you're a little kid... and you're not Ran. Rin. And that's all there is to it. I wish I could make you understand-----*

She sniffled again. In a small, sad little voice she spoke. "Can't I be your girl-friend **_too_**?"

*Ayumi-kun, I'd feel like a child molester. No way, not even in fun.* Then he had an *inspiration,* a good one; glancing behind him to make sure that the other two weren't within hearing range, Conan leaned a little closer. "No.... but you can be my _Best_ Friend, though. I don't _have_ a Best Friend." 

The little girl's eyes widened. "Really, Conan-kun?" She seemed to be considering the idea with some seriousness; the teenager-turned-child breathed an internal sigh of relief. "Really," he assured her earnestly. "Some of the boys at school have had more than one girl-friend, but nobody EVER has more than one Best Friend." _*Ran was my best friend once upon a time, but now she's something more; I don't think she'd mind. Ayumi-kun is a good kid, a really good kid--- smart, kind, a little spoiled maybe... but she'll be one hell of an adult someday. And Ran's going to need a good friend too.*_

They paused to cross a street, shoulders brushing against one another's; as they reached the sidewalk Conan held out one hand, smallest finger crooked. "Here, I'll Pinky-Swear it with you. 'I, Edogawa Conan, do solemnly swear that Ayumi is now and will always be my Best Friend in the entire world.'"

The little girl hesitated for a long second, thinking--- and then linked her finger in hers. They shook on the deal three times (as was customary in the arcane rituals of the Pinky Swear), and then Ayumi surprised her friend by throwing her arms around him in a quick hug. Blushing, the boy extricated himself--- not too quickly; he didn't want to hurt her feelings--- and the two continued on their way.

Watching from their vantage point some ways behind, Genta and Mitsuhiko simultaneously raised confused eyebrows at each other and shrugged.

*******************************************************************

"Tadaima!" Conan called through the front door, Ayumi trailing close behind. _*Home. Funny how much 'home' this place feels like now. Guess you can get used to anything, given time.*_

There was a clatter, and a small, skinny little girl came pelting around the corner of Ran's bedroom, long hair flying. "Shi-" She skidded to a halt at the sight of the grade-schooler peering around the boy's shoulder, wide-eyed. There was a long pause.

Conan held his breath.

Ayumi broke the silence. She stepped around Conan, smiling at the other girl. "Hi... I go to school with Conan-kun, so I'll be going to school with _you,_ too." Dumbly the other 'child' nodded. "You're Rin-kun, ne?" Shyly 'Himitsu Rin' smiled back, her hands twisting each other with nervousness. "I'm Ayumi. I'm Conan-kun's _Best Friend!"_ she announced proudly.

'Rin' cocked her head a little to one side, still smiling. "His 'Best Friend'? Then I'm really glad to meet you, Ayumi-kun; hajimemashite!" She giggled.

__

*Whew. Guess that worked okay.* Conan felt weak with relief.

Behind him, panting breaths announced the arrival of the two other kids; two short, weary bodies shuffled around the doorjamb to lean exhausted against the wall. 'Himitsu Rin' surveyed them with some alarm; the other boy merely shook his head, pushing his glasses up his nose. "What kept you two?"

Mitsuhiko was too winded to speak; Genta rolled his eyes and started pulling handfulls of rather smashed small candies out of his capacious pockets. "Free... candy samples (pant, pant)... at the store... on Neko Street (gasp, pant)... We stopped and got... some, so we got... slowed down, and we had (huff, huff)... to run." Still panting, the somewhat oversized boy offered a handful to 'Rin'; she gingerly accepted, moving a step or two closer to Conan. "Hi, I'm Genta, and---" he puffed; the smaller boy cut in. "--- and I'm Mitsuhiko. You're Rin-kun, Conan-kun's girlfriend, right? C'mon! Let's go to the park!" he finished, speaking at top speed as usual. The two boys grinned at the rather abashed 'Rin-kun'; Ayumi grabbed both her and Conan's hands and laughed, towing them along. With a yell from Conan of "Oji-san- we're-going-to-the-park-we'll-be-back-in-a-little-while-abayo!" they were out the door.

*******************************************************************

The park was a soft green oasis in the afternoon sunlight, full of wide spaces for children to run in, kites to be flown in, couples to stroll in. From his vantage point on the Monkey Bars, Conan felt himself fading slowly over into his Shinichi-self as usual--- that happened fairly often when he was in an open, exposed area; he would find himself keeping a sharp eye open for black trenchcoats. Lingering paranoia, he supposed.....

The boy's dark blue eyes scanned the trees at the edge of the park, then returned to linger on the figure of one young girl. A reluctant smile tugged at his lips, and his shoulders relaxed a little.

__

*There's no reason for Black Org operatives to be in a city park..... Well, not really; so parks are used for drug trafficking and dropoffs--- so what? Don't get paranoid, Kudo; nobody knows about Ran but you, Ai, Professor Agasa, her mom and her dad. Nobody's going to know, either. She'll be safe.*

Stretching, he swung down from the bars and dropped onto the ground. The object of his speculation was currently talking shyly to Ayumi-kun, her heart-shaped face a little pink. God, Ran looked cute (_*No, Rin--- gotta get used to that...*_)..... she had changed clothes, he saw; the jeans and t-shirt made her look more like the Ran he knew than the skirt and top provided by Ai the night before. Briefly Conan wondered about Ai's whereabouts, then gave it up as a waste of time. She'd show up sooner or later.....

__

*And then we'll have a chat, we two. I'm not quite as angry as I was, but I'm not going to let this little matter drop.*

Never mind. There were more important things than a quarrel to think about right now. Like watching Ran..... no, _Rin....._

*Just look at her. I remember, when we were kids I used to think she was sort of special--- Even though she was a girl she was more fun to play with than anybody of the other kids; she'd listen to me, and even when she laughed at me she still seemed to like me. Even that time I threw her bookbag off the school roof to show her how long it would take for a body to fall fifteen meters, she only hit me over the head--- she didn't stop talking to me.*

The two little girls had moved to the swings now; Conan frowned a bit when he noticed their differences in walking, armswing and the like. Ayumi-kun's movements were much easier than Ran's, looser and less contained; her limbs swung in wider arcs--- their patterns were more erratic, more prone to change than the other girl's were. 

__

*Well, that makes sense; as we grow older, we learn how to socially interact with more and more people around us, and one of the things we learn is not to intrude on 'personal space.' We learn to keep our bodies in a smaller area, and we forget that there're other ways of moving besides just walking and jogging. How many times does an adult skip down a sidewalk, or gallop like a horse, or just out-and-out take off in a headlong run? How many times do adults move without thinking, or without caring how it's going to look?*

*Kid's don't care how they look--- they just move. If there's a curb next to where they're walking, it's more fun to try and tight-rope walk the curb than to walk next to it. Why not, after all? I had to relearn that sort of thing in the first few weeks after I got 'shrunk'; guess I'll have to teach Ran-- Rin-- too. Man, I wonder how long it's going to take me to get used to her new name?*

A shout and a slight splashing off to one side drew his reluctant attention; Genta and Mitsuhiko had apparently found something interesting to mess with, from the looks of it. The larger of the two boys was ankle-deep in the park's muddy little pond, and the smaller boy knelt on the bank, peering closely at... the grass? As Conan sauntered over to take a look, Genta grinned and slogged his way to the pebbled bank, tennishoes sloshing. "Conan-kun, come take a look--- there's something in there---"

'There' was a narrow PVC-style drainpipe protruding from the gentle slope running down to the pond. Mitsuhiko was kneeling with his knees in the mud, trying to angle his head down enough to see into the pipe. Conan frowned, squatting beside the thin boy. "What's up?"

Mitsuhiko squinted into the dark pipe, which was no more than twenty centimeters across. "We saw a man trying to pull something out of here the other day--- he had his hand inside the pipe, but he didn't take anything out. He was fishing..... We wanted to see if he'd caught any fish, but he called us bad names and yelled at us to leave him alone; then he left. Grouch!"

The boy snorted, one untidy lock of hair falling across his freckled face. He squinted again at the pipe, then gave it up as a lost cause. "There's probably nothing in there anyway..... If I had my flashlight I could see---" Mitsuhiko complained. His bottom lip stuck out a little as he continued; "--- but I let Toshiro-kun at school borrow it, and he hasn't been at school for a few days."

Conan frowned, running his fingers along the inside of the plastic pipe. _*Lots of scratches here, deep ones; wonder why?*_ "Toshiro-kun? You mean that skinny, quiet little kid who sits in the back of the room?" The other boy nodded, scratching at a bandaid on his forearm. "I gave him my flashlight to use _three days ago_, and he hasn't been back ever since." His annoyed tone announced clearly that three days without his two-way focusable flashlight (a birthday gift from his father) equaled an eternity in his opinion; even at the age of seven, Mitsuhiko showed great promise of becoming a full-fledged gadget freak.

His attention was then distracted by Genta, who took the opportunity to flick a splatter of pond-water onto the back of his friend's neck. "Oi, Genta, that's cold!" The skinny boy stomped a foot sideways into the shallow pond, sending a spray up. Laughing, the taller boy stomped back at him, spattering Conan as well. The teenager-turned-child sputtered, and the pipe-inquiry session degenerated into a three-way splashing contest.

Laughter made the boys look up; dripping and muddy, they turned as one towards the two girls who watched from a little ways up the bank. "Eeeeewww! Rin-kun, watch it, they'll get us wet!" Ayumi backed away--- but not far enough. A mighty stomp from Genta sent a spray of water flying in her direction, and she shrieked, half-laughing. "Coooonan-kun! Make him stopppp!!"

__

Free-for-all.....

By the time an irate park-worker had chased the children from the pond, all were soaked through and weak with laughter. Panting, Ran/Rin sank down on the grass beside Conan, brushing a strand of soggy hair from off her nose. "I can't believe I just did that..." she gasped, leaning against him. A little ways off the other three kids flopped down on the grass as well, giggling and boasting about who had splashed who the most. The girl glanced sidelong at the boy, who was in the middle of wiping his glasses with his shirt-tail. "I can't believe _you_ just did that. Here, stop it--- how many times have I told you you'll scratch the lenses?" 

Little-girl fingers took the glasses away from little-boy hands, and a tissue was applied from a handy pocket. "Conan-kun, you-----" She paused, an astonished look passing over her face as he watched, arms folded, smiling faintly.

Stammering, she handed the glasses back. "I-- I'm sorry, it's just---"

The boy took them back, turning them gently around and around in his hands. He chuckled. "It's okay, really; I'd be pretty surprised if you didn't do things like that now and then. Still the same old Ran....." He leaned back, hands clasped beneath his head. Late afternoon rays of sunlight gleamed against his face, making his eyes blink sleepily; staring at him, Ran suddenly felt her throat knot tightly with emotion.

__

*He's really, really Shinichi..... he really **is**. Now that I know, he's acting differently--- he's more relaxed, somehow. He can let his guard down around me; he doesn't have to keep his 'Conan' appearance up anymore, not with me. God, that must've gotten so old after a while.....* His eyes closed, slowly; lying there, the smooth-skinned young boy's face was calm, at ease. The slightest trace of a smile curved his lips.

She knew that smile; had known it for most of her life. _*How could I miss it? Why didn't I recognize it?*_

*I remember when we were, well, little, he was such a pest; he wouldn't exactly follow me around--- he'd just BE there, wherever I happened to be going. Guess he figured things out pretty well even then. And he talked, all the time; some of the other kids thought he was weird because he was interested in absolutely everything, no matter how strange or trivial.*

*He made me mad sometimes--- well, LOTS of times, really, like when he put that transmitter bug in my notebook in fifth grade. I wonder where in the world he got that? When I found out he'd been listening in on me all day I nearly put him through a window. And there was the time he went around fingerprinting everybody back when we were eight and he didn't tell us he was using permanent ink.....*

*But..... he always wanted to talk to me, always teased me..... For some reason, he liked me. And I found out after a while that I liked him too.*

She watched the boy for a moment or two, her own lips curving unconsciously into a smile.

__

*So here we both are, back again where we started; will you tease me and talk to me again, Shinichi? Will you drive me to distraction and play practical jokes on me, will you sneak notes to me in class and help me with my homework? Will you be both Shinichi and Conan for me?* Ran blinked down at the grass, running her fingers idly through the blades._ *I've missed Shinichi; if I lost Conan, I'd miss him too.*_

*I love them both.*

When she looked up, his eyes were open, wide open and fixed on hers. 

__

*Dark blue eyes.... You always knew how to figure me out, didn't you? You could never take a step wrong, not in that. But I don't think you ever figured on this happening, Shinichi. This... second childhood of mine.*

Sharp eyes, full of knowledge and perception. Young-man eyes. They softened slightly, watching her as if she were something... amazing. She wondered what he was seeing.

__

*Who knows, Shinichi? I think maybe you'll find that I've still got a few surprises left in me that you haven't figured out yet.* Rin smiled down at Conan, then tickled his nose with a blade of grass and made him laugh.

*******************************************************************

It was getting late by the time they walked back across the park; the sun's last lingering shafts of light were filtering through the trees, red and gold. They had all dried out a bit by now, but the rising evening wind was still enough to make them shiver a bit. Ayumi was chattering away at a fast click to her newfound friend Rin-kun, when Mitsuhiko stopped in his tracks. The freckled boy stared towards the trees at the edge of the park in surprise. "Toshiro-kun? Is that you?" He took a few steps forward, and the other children turned to look.

A small figure stood a little ways away, pale face indistinct against the half-light of sunset. A boy, certainly; he smiled shyly at them and Conan blinked as he recognized the child as his classmate, Nodomo Toshiro. He didn't really know the kid--- he was a quiet sort who kept very much to himself, seldom speaking up in class or making much of an effort to be friends with anyone.

But there he was; why didn't he come towards them? He was bending over, placing something in the grass----- Conan jumped slightly as a car backfired behind them in the park's exit-avenue; he turned back towards the boy at the treeline-----

----- who was no longer there.

__

*Huh?!? Where'd he go??*

Mitsuhiko ran forward, looking wildly around in all directions. "Toshiro-kun---? Toshiro?? Where _are_ you?!?" His thin face was deeply puzzled. "He was right _here_---"

The other children came up behind him, looking around. Nothing; and the trees were too thin to hide anyone. Conan frowned, glancing at Ran/Rin, who shook her head in puzzlement. _*Beats the hell out of me. Where did he go?!? And what's that?*_

He stooped to pick up something that lay, shiny and silver, glinting in the grass. Mitsuhiko reached for it, exclaiming gleefully: "My flashlight! He brought it back--- but, but where did he go? And--- yuck! What's this stuff all over my flashlight??" The boy examined the silver metal casing with disgust and indignation, scrubbing at something dark and tarry with his fingernails. "He got gunk all over my flashlight! Hey, _Toshiro_-kuuuun!!" He yelled the boy's name as Conan took the flashlight from him, grimacing at the tacky feel of the surface.

No answer. The boy had simply vanished.

__

*Don't be stupid, Kudo; people don't vanish. What-- IS this stuff? It's kind of hard to tell, but I'd almost swear that it's-----"

He stared, brow wrinkled. A very unchildlike look of concern crossed his face, and he raised the flashlight to his nose to smell it. The skin on the boy's face wrinkled at the sour scent.

Beside him, 'Rin' held out a tissue wordlessly; Conan--- _Shinichi_ carefully wiped away the tarry residue from the metal casing and folded the tissue into one pocket. Still fuming and puzzled, Mitsuhiko accepted his flashlight back, and the five kids trudged back on their way out of the park.

But as they left, the shortest boy of the lot hung back a bit, glasses gleaming in the dying daylight. The dark-haired young girl beside him paused as well, watching as he scanned the park one more time. She spoke very softly. "Shinichi..... what's wrong?"

He shook his head, and for the barest moment she almost seemed to see the older, sharper-featured face flash across his visage. "Nothing, really... it's just--- the stuff on that flashlight. I'm not _absolutely_ sure, but I'd bet money that it was blood....."

__

********************************************************************************************************************

End of Chapter 2


	3. Additions and Subtractions

__

Ysabet's Notes: Hiya. Well….. when I said that the next few chapters would be significantly smaller--- I lied. Sorry about that; they're just gonna be humongous, I guess. And, by the way, any significant silliness in this chapter can be attributed to a large amount of cold medicine and to conversations with Becky Tailweaver, whose fanfics I STRONGLY suggest you go and read if you want a major treat--- amazing stuff, and far superior to mine! Wicked sense of humor there, and lots of the more peculiar parts of this story are due to her suggestions and/or egging me on..… Ysabet, Professional Bad Influence and Rabble-Rouser

Chapter 3: Additions and Subtractions

"Ummm, h-hajimemashite--- My name's Himitsu Rin….." The young voice faltered a little with the introduction; small hands gripped each other in unforeseen shyness. "I'm your new classmate. I-- I'm glad to be here….. and I hope I don't screw up….. and _what_ am I doing, going back to grade-school?!?" In an effort to shake off her nervousness, the child crossed her eyes, tugged one down and stuck out her tongue at her audience:

"Bliiiiiiiiiiii-e-e-e-e-ehhh…..!" There; that was better. Ran smirked at her reflection in the bedroom mirror, which smirked back.

Well, if all else failed, _that_ sort of introduction should get her sent into the halls with water-bucket detail right off; what a way to start your first day at school. The young woman/young child wondered if they still did that sort of thing in grade school, or was that too old-fashioned? She'd probably find out soon enough--- In the meantime, she surveyed her appearance in the mirror.

New clothes: Check. The simple tan overalls-set and dark red t-shirt would do just fine, though she was a bit doubtful about the cluster of butterflies embroidered on the front pocket. Ran sighed; this was one of her mother's more wearable 'kawaii' choices.

New school supplies: Check. The backpack would do just fine, and she had loaded it with the usual school-type supplies-- notebooks, pencils, that sort of thing. On Conan-kun's advice she had added crayons. The girl shimmied her shoulders a bit, settling it into place.

New body: _Check._ 'Rin' stared herself up and down, from toes to crown of head; she'd manage. It all felt so _weird_ still--- just sliding out of a chair was a new experience, considering the drop to the floor. And then there were the bathroom shortcomings; she had never quite realized until now just how _tall_ a normal toilet was (although the thought that at least she wasn't a boy was a considerable consolation).

She'd manage….. so long as she didn't panic. _Not Panicking_ was high on her list of Important Things To Remember.

Those eyes looking back at her from the mirror, were they the eyes of the child she had once been? No, not really; there was a weight of experience there that sat oddly in her little-girl face. Ran cocked her head to one side; now, how did Shinichi manage it---? _*Let's see….. The times that I nearly caught him he always looked so shocked, and then his face would just slip back into that little 'I'm-So-Innocent-I-Squeak' look of his, like a curtain coming down…..*_ She frowned fiercely and began to practice.

Several tries produced a remarkably Ayumi-like expression (which Ran privately dubbed her RinFace), all wide eyes and eager inquisitiveness. _*That'll do,*_ she thought with satisfaction, failing entirely to recall what kind of results Conan's 'Innocent' look had produced in the past (immediate suspicion of guilt). _*Take that, World!*_ And she crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue once more: _"Bliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-e-e-e-e-ehhhhh!!!"_

Slow clapping erupted from behind her; Ran spun in place, face burning.

Edogawa Conan, formerly Kudo Shinichi, leaned against her doorjamb, trying hard to keep his face serious; but both eyebrows were climbing his forehead by now and the grin that kept sneaking onto his face was wide enough to hurt. And yet, at the same time there was a certain glimmer of understanding in his dark blue eyes; he had been where she was now. "Getting ready for the big day? _That_ expression'll go over just great….." He crossed his arms, snickering.

Ran made another face, this time at him. Conan merely grinned. "Dinner's ready. Of course, if you'd rather stay here and make faces at the mirror---"

The girl frowned, considering. "Is my mom cooking, or did Dad order out?" she asked, shuffling her backpack off to plop it onto the bed. She followed suit, hopping up to sit beside it; her new shoes fell with a double 'thud' onto the bedside mat.

"Uhhhh….. she cooked, I think….."

Ran sniffed the air apprehensively; _*Let's see….. Very strong tea, a scorched something-- rice? Lots of soy sauce, something I can't identify….. Mom definitely cooked tonight.*_

She looked at Conan. "You.... never got much of a chance to try my Mom's cooking, did you? While we were growing up, I mean? Maybe we should _both_ stay up here--- you can give me pointers on how to handle school tomorrow." _*It's not that I don't love my Mom, but she cooks like..... well--- she doesn't exactly cook; she just sort of adds familiar things together and hopes for the best. Fish, soy sauce, pineapple, tabasco, lettuce, peanut butter, onions, chocolate.....*_

He surveyed her, the familiar slantwise smile lighting up the young face behind the glasses. "I dunno….. looks like you've got the perspective down, at least--- " He shrugged, arms still crossed. "The big thing is both to take it seriously and _not_ too seriously at the same time." 

At her blank look Conan laughed and clasped his hands behind his head, still leaning on the doorjamb. "I mean, you're going to see these kids and their teachers and all every day for--- well, for _years_ if Ai doesn't find us a solution. At the same time, it's *Grade School* for crying out loud--- half the time I'm just trying to stay awake through class." He rolled his eyes. "Let's see; right now we're deeply involved in the wonders of two-digit addition and subtraction--- there's this rumor that we'll be talking about some mysterious thing called 'multiplication', but it's unsubstantiated as yet. And then there's Kanji study--- you have to be careful with that one, it's really easy to be _too_ good at drawing the characters---"

Ran crossed her legs, sitting indian-style on the bed. "Sounds..... grim." She studied his face. "And you've been doing this for a whole year. It couldn't have been _all_ bad-----" The little-girl voice was soft, worried. "Will I be able to pull it off, do you think? I'm going to try as hard as I can not to be a, a burden-----"

Dropping his casual pose, Conan's face turned serious; his eyes darkened, and suddenly _Shinichi_ was looking out at her from behind the thin mask of lenses. "Ran..... you'll _never_ be a burden; there's no way--- I mean, I can't begin to tell you---" He stopped and took a deep breath, pulling off his glasses and gripping them tightly in his small fists. "If you only _knew_ how it feels right now, not having to hide from you anymore..... I feel like somebody just removed weights from my shoulders."

There was a long moment of silence, filled with things that neither adult-turned-child could quite bring themselves to say. In an effort to lighten things a bit, the boy managed a chuckle. "Hey--- you know what I've missed the most over the last year?"

Ran was blushing a little by now. "What?" she asked shyly.

"Just being able to _talk_ to you. Sometimes--- when I was just Conan--- I could manage it, for a while; but I always had to filter whatever I did or said through 'Conan the kid'. I don't have to do that anymore." His serious gaze had softened, a smile playing about his lips. "And you know how much I like to talk....."

Ran couldn't help chuckling, even through her blush. "I know." She scooted forward then, hopping down from the bed to land on the rug with a _thump_. "You'd better go on down to dinner now--- I'll be right along after I change. I just wanted to try these on....." 

As he turned to go, he felt her eyes lingering on him; and behind his back he heard her say very softly "I've missed you too, Shinichi....."

The door shut quietly behind him.

************************************************************************

Dinner was--- interesting. And a few other things starting with 'in-' as well: inedible, inevitable, interminable…..

*Indescribable…..* Ran stared at the plateful of... something... in front of her. The same question kept cycling through her mind over and over: _*Animal, vegetable, or mineral? Animal, vegetable, or mineral? Animal, veg---*_ Across the table there was a muffled _"mmph!!"_ as the actual taste of his first bite registered with Conan.

She didn't dare to look up; it would only compound things. Best not to witness each other's suffering.

Stirring the _substance_ with a chopstick, she addressed her waterglass. "Umm, Mom? Do we have any plain bread in the kitchen?"

Her mother frowned. "I think so..... Why? Ran, are you feeling well?" Maternal concern was evident in every word. Ran stifled a feeling of guilt and replied cheerfully: "I'm fine, I'm fine--- I just thought bread'd go _really well_ with this--- this--- what is it?" She poked at something, which jiggled where it lay.

"Just something I whipped up; I got a bit experimental this evening," said Kisaki Eri, a note of pride in her voice. Across from her Mouri Kogoro opened his mouth to make a comment, then thought better of it and was silent.

Ran glanced up, meeting her mother's eyes with a brave smile. "It's really... _unique,_ Mom, really different; but could I have some bread to go with it, please? Thanks." The older woman slipped off her chair towards the kitchen, and the little girl leaned forward to meet her dinner companions' desperate eyes quickly. Under her breath she hissed:

"Listen--- take a bite of bread, then a bite of what she cooked; when you swallow it you won't taste it as much. Eat a _lot_ of the bread and you won't have to eat as much of _that_..." Ran spared a glance at her plate and shuddered. Both pale faces nodded thankfully; when Eri returned with a basket of rolls, there was a flurry of reaching hands. Surprised, she raised an eyebrow. "So bread makes a good accompaniment; hmmmm.... I'll have to remember that for future reference." She took another large bite.

Ran shivered slightly, memories of past meals with her mother passing through her mind like bad dreams. _*No wonder I learned how to cook so early.....*_

Across the table her father cleared his throat, swallowing a bite of breadroll. "So--- got your first day at school all worked out? I took care of your registration and all that bother today....." Mouri sounded a bit tentative, watching his daughter carefully sift through her meal with her chopsticks for something identifiable.

Ran smiled at her father, seeing his dark expression soften a little. _*He's been looking so tired, so--- confused, I guess, ever since this began..... It's been hard on him, all these changes.*_ She reached across the table for another breadroll. "I think so..... It's been a long time since I was in Grade School, but I think I can handle it again. And besides, Shini--- _Conan-kun'll_ be there to help me out, right?"

Mouri grunted, quirking one sardonic eyebrow towards the person in question. "Yes, he will--- _won't_ you, boy?"

Startled, Conan looked up, swallowing a quick bite from his third breadroll. "Mmmph-- um, yeah--- of course I will." Mouri-san's expression needed very little interpretation: _Help Ran out or die like a dog in the street._

*Like I'd ever abandon her…..* His eyes flickered towards Ran; she ducked her head as she hid a smile. At least she didn't' doubt that he'd be there for her.

*Ran, I hope you know what you're getting into….. Huh; just had an odd idea. No more 'Ran-neechan' around to help out--- she always took me places, got me in where a kid by himself couldn't go when good old Oji-san wanted to leave me behind. That's a change… maybe a difficult one. But I'll manage--- we'll manage.* 

He stirred his plate with a chopstick. "Everything'll be fine. You already know Genta and the other two, that'll help--- though don't be too surprised if they drag you off to play at Recess." He grinned at the faint look of dismay on Ran's small face. _*And don't be surprised when half the first-grade boys decide they want to be your boyfriend, 'Rin-kun'; you're going to leave a trail of broken hearts behind you…..*_

Conan took another bite and suppressed a grimace; the bread idea was working, at least partially. "Playing's actually one of the better parts of this whole situation--- you'd be _amazed_ what you can observe about the people around you by just acting like a kid. They don't pay much attention to you when you're doing what's expected of you; I get a lot of clues like that."

Mouri Kogoro paused in the act of drinking his tea; his brows drew down like a thundercloud and Conan/Shinichi suddenly found himself being glowered at. "Speaking of **_clues_**….."

*Uh oh.*

"….. Just how many times did you 'help out' on cases this past year? All those 'Kudo Shinichi' phone calls--- and didn't you actually _show up_ a time or two? What about that?" The table had grown rather quiet.

*Crap; I keep forgetting--- he's not really an imbecile, he just tends towards tunnel vision. And I've just poked a hole in his tunnel, and now the light's pouring in….. or something like that……* Reluctantly the boy reached into his pocket and tugged out the most useful of the gadgets that Professor Agasa had provided him with: his bowtie voice-modulator. "Ah, well….. As for the phone calls--- " he twisted the dial and held the bowtie up to his lips; "--- this is how I managed them." _Shinichi's_ voice suddenly entered the conversation, making them all jump. 

Conan/Shinichi grinned wryly at them all, twisting the dial again. "It's pretty useful, really….." he said in Ran's voice; she stared at him, open-mouthed. Another twist, then: "I only use it when I have to, but it's saved my hide a time or two," said Mouri-san's deep tones, drawing a wide-eyed, slackjawed look from the detective. The boy clicked the dial back to zero and handed it to Ran, who took it gingerly. "You said something earlier about having to call Sonoko-chan, right? Your voice is number 73.9 on the dial."

Mouri was frowning now. "Just **_how_** many times have you imitated my---"

Conan cut in hurriedly; he had expected this. "Not too many, really--- just a couple of times when I needed to sound, ahhh, believable or intelligent---- you know, beyond doubt? That sort of thing." _*Okay, that's an outright lie, I admit it. And I will admit it later, to Ran….. but if I told Oji-san about all those 'sleeping detective' episodes right now I wouldn't live to see daylight, I'm absolutely sure of it. I'd end up shoved into a trash-compactor or something equally lethal.*_

Kisaki Eri was eyeing him with suspicion. _*Better watch it with Eri-san--- she's a lot sharper than her husband.*_ In answer to her unspoken question, the boy shook his head. "And I've never imitated your voice--- I can promise you that." _*Not that I wouldn't have done so if it was necessary, but the opportunity just never came up.*_

Mouri-san settled back with a somewhat unsatisfied-sounding grunt. From the dark look on his face he still had questions regarding the whole 'voice' issue, but for the moment he seemed willing to let it lie. He had _other_ things on his mind, equally unsettling things. "And the cases? How often have you poked your nose in? And don't tell me you haven't--- I **_remember_** you, Kudo; you couldn't _help_ it." At Conan's guilty look he snorted in satisfaction. "Thought so. Well?"

*Oh boy…..*

"Ahh…. That is….. where do you want me to start?"

************************************************************************

*Poor Shinichi. Can't say you don't deserve this, though…..* Ran slipped quietly away from the table where Conan/Shinichi was still sweating out her father's interrogation.

*And I plan on doing a little 'interrogating' of my own later on….. I wonder how many times he imitated MY voice? And there's that little dart-gun thing of his--- He'd better not tell Dad about that or… I don't want to think about it.*

*Still---*

*--- I wonder if I can get Professor Agasa to make me one?*

A preoccupied expression crossed Ran's face as she padded down the hall towards the living room._ *I suppose I'd better call Sonoko now. I still feel so bad about that; I think she's going to miss me. We've been friends since I was a little kid. I'll miss her, too….. but telling her our secret is out, really; much as I like her, she tends to gossip.*_

An adjustment of the bowtie's dial and she was set. She spent a few minutes playing with the device, giggling a bit a bit at the variety of sounds she could produce. _*I can see why Shinichi prizes this thing so much--- it's really useful. Just something else to ask Professor Agasa about.*_ Reaching for the phone, Ran tucked up her feet beneath her and settled down for her first excursion into modulated prevarication.

Fifteen minutes or so later she hung up, frowning. Sonoko-chan had been… difficult; while she had seemed to believe Ran's story, there had been a certain _something_ in her voice that made the transformed young woman wonder just how convincing she had been. _*I guess part of the problem is that I hate to lie to her; we've always told each other everything, and now anything I say to Sonoko will have to be… adjusted. Just like me .*_

From the dining room Shinichi/Conan and her father's voices made a slightly strident duet; they seemed to be discussing something about a bomber…? Oh right, that case that had happened on Shinichi's birthday a few months back. Still curled up beside the phone, Ran felt her cheeks heat slightly as she remembered her abortive 'date' and the ordeal that had resulted, trapped within the rubble of a ruined and crumbling building.

*He was there with me, on the other side of that blocked doorway; he may have been in a little boy's body, but Shinichi really was there with me. He would have--- if the building had blown up--- he told me that he would stay with me---* She closed her eyes. That had been so close, too close.

The two voices had been joined by a third: her mother's, inquiring and rather sharp. _*Maybe I'd better go rescue him-----*_

And then she caught the words 'hot spring trip' in the conversation and froze, remembering vividly: _*We… went to that resort. To a hot spring. And I… oh Noooo..… I dragged Conan in--- and I washed his hair---*_

*AHHHHHGH!!! SHINICHI saw me NAKED!!!* 

Total, face-scalding, red-to-the-roots shock…..

Ran slid off the couch and hightailed it to her room, eyes big as saucers. _*Let him rescue his **own** damn self!!*_

The bowtie voice-modulator lay forgotten on the couch.

************************************************************************

"Ummmm…. Ran? Can I talk to you for a minute? It's about school tomorrow….."

"No! Go away!!"

Perplexed pause. "Are you--- _mad_ at me for some reason?" Silence; then…..

"What do _you_ think, *_huh?!?*"_ A crash of something against the door indicated a briefly-airborne wastecan.

Wince, widened eyes, shuffling of feet. "What's wrong? Did I do something?? Listen, if it's about dinner, I ate as much as I could stand---"

Another WHAM!, possibly from a thrown book. "Does the phrase _hot spring_ ring any bells for you?!? How about _NAKED?"_

"……………..….._ohshit_……………..….._"_

"…………."

"…………."

"I think you'd just better go to **sleep**, _don't you?_ _GOODNIGHT_!!"

"…….……..…..goodnight………......….."

Silence again, broken now and then by muffled cursing in a little girl's voice.

************************************************************************

It was nearly two hours later when he heard the knock on his door. Conan lay staring up at the lines of light cast onto the ceiling by the streetlights outside; "Come in…" he said softly.

A small, tousled head poked around the doorjamb; great dark eyes blinked at him, solemn and a little apologetic. Ran smiled wanly in the shadows. "I… couldn't sleep. Did I wake you up?"

He smiled faintly back. "Nahh; couldn't sleep either." Conan gestured for her to come in, watching as she padded across the floor to drop cross-legged onto the carpet beside his bed, her back to him. The streetlights threw golden highlights across Ran's chestnut hair, tiny shining rivers that glinted and changed course as she turned to look up at him. "I'm… sorry about earlier. I was embarrassed." She ducked her head, a blush that only the darkness saw warming her cheeks. "Guess I still am."

He could feel his own face warming. "Ummmmm….. me too. Sorry………."

"……….thoughIhavetopointoutthatyou_did_pullmeinwithyou………"

Ran glared at him through the shadows, struggling to keep a straight face. Conan/Shinichi grinned to himself, counting. _*… five… four… three… two…*_ She lost the battle and began to laugh. "No fair--- I didn't _know_ any better!" Their laughter mingled in the darkness, striped with streetlight.

Still laughing he sat up, propping himself against his pillows. "Well, now you do. The next time we go to a hot spring you can keep your hands to _yourself,_ Hentai Girl..…"

She sputtered. _"Shinichi!!!"_ A fallen pillow was swung in his direction; he retaliated, and the next few minutes were filled with half-hysterical snorts, giggles and the dull 'thud' of impacting ammo. At last, strength spent and weak with laughter, they both slumped back in their places. "I haven't (pant)… done anything like that (wheeze)… with you since we were _kids, _Shinichi-kun….." Ran pushed a tangle of hair from her eyes, sliding down to sit with her back to the bed.

Conan/Shinichi was already half-hanging off the mattress, having taken refuge at the bedfoot; he slid down to plomp next to her on the floor, knees drawn up to his chest, arms clasped around them. Still chuckling, he closed his eyes and imitated her voice in a squeaky little-boy falsetto: _"'Shinichi!!!_ Oh, the horror--- he saw me _butt-naked in a hot spring!!!'_ Never mind that I yelled my head off when you hauled me in….."

Ran snickered. "You screamed like a girl," she teased him, tugging her bathrobe tight around her shoulders. The air in the room was cool. He opened his eyes and cocked one eyebrow at her, grinning.

"Hrmmph. You should talk….. Hentai. Hentai Girl... I think I'll keep calling you that--- it'll make your parents wonder."

Ran's eyes narrowed and she raised a pillow in mock-threat. "Try it. I'll smother you in your sleep--- I bet I can find an old file-box up in the attic to hide your body in, you're small enough to fit….."

Conan/Shinichi sighed, propping his chin where his clasped hands rested on his knees. "I'll save it for special occasions, then." He blew out a long breath. "So are you ready for tomorrow?"

She yawned. "Guess so….. I've been trying hard to recall what it was like the _first_ time I was in Grade School, but it was a long time ago--- I never realized how much I had forgotten." She ran her hands through her hair, snagging on a tangle. "Oww! I don't remember my hair being this long when I was little before--- it wasn't, was it? I think I used to tie it back....." Ran gathered the long, dark fall into a double handful, drawing it back from her face. The boy studied her for a moment; "Yeah--- that looks more like it used to. I remember, one time I tied your hair-ribbon onto the top rung of your chair....." 

She scowled sideways again at him. "I wouldn't try calling me 'Hentai Girl' _now_ if I were you--- when I got home this afternoon, I tried out a few katas; this body may be a lot smaller and weaker, but some things still remain. It's kind of like your soccer skills, I guess."

Ran yawned again, stretching her thin arms out in front of her. A small smile crept onto her lips as the little girl glanced sidelong at the boy beside her. "So watch yourself....." She shivered a bit, her eyes sleepy.

Conan felt his heart twinge inside his chest; for a moment his own eyes were very much those of a young man in love. _*I'd really rather watch you, Ran, and remember.....* _"Still the karate champion, huh? Some things never change..... Do you think you can rest okay now?"

She yawned one last time, a long movement full of the curling-up that precedes sleep. "S'pose so..... can I just sit here for a while?" In answer he scooted a little closer, and she smiled to herself as her head drooped to rest against his shoulder.

The boy stretched his short legs out in front of him, side by side with Ran's. Four small feet, two in socks and two in house-scuffs..... The proportions weren't the same as that of adults; the ankles were too thin, the feet too long, the knees too knobby. Sitting there beside her, though..... Conan could almost forget that they wore the bodies of children. But sooner or later something silly (like their feet) would remind him, and he would remember.

*It's going to be a long, long next few years, Ran-kun..... Ran. We have a lot of growing up to do.* He tilted his head a little sideways, studying her profile out of the corner of his eye. The small face was lovely in the dimness, tendrils of hair shading her dark eyes; Ran's long eyelashes threw sudden, spiky shadows across her cheeks as they drifted closed.

*I wish--- I wish I knew how to tell you what I'm feeling right now; I'm worried that you'll regret this, that I've ruined your life; I'm afraid for you when I see how hard things are for you, and I'm proud when I see how well you handle them; I want to tell you--- tell you---*

Her eyes were fully closed now, and her breathing deepened into sleep.

*----- tell you everything inside me; all the stuff I never told you while we were older..... when we were Shinichi and Ran, not Conan and Rin, another world ago.....* Warmth seemed to seize his heart, wrapping it around thoughts of _Ran_ until he felt warmed through.

Her negligible weight rested against him as Ran/Rin slept, small head pillowed on his shoulder. The boy's own eyelids felt heavy, and they slipped closed as a last lingering thought ran through his mind like the closing notes of a piece of music:

*Ran, Rin..... the best of both worlds.....*

He slept, warm and secure.

************************************************************************

Darkness. It always began with darkness. But there was nothing frightening about it, not really, no terrible black void or anything like that; there was a familiarity to the starless night by now. It felt… comfortable.

And besides--- they always had each other for company.

Shinichi glanced down at his companion; the young boy's rather tousled head came no higher than his waist. His other self stretched short legs to try and match his pace, and the young man obligingly cut back his stride. Conan glanced idly around at the darkened, empty roads, lenses flashing back the sulfur-orange lights that hummed overhead. "Do you ever wonder what we'd find if we went down one of the sidestreets?"

His older persona shrugged, hands in pockets. "Sometimes..... Not tonight, though; I want to see if Ran'll be waiting for us."

"You mean 'Rin', don't you?" The small boy mirrored his movements unconsciously, shoving hands into his own pockets.

"Same thing."

"Yeah..... Do you really think they'll be there?" They had almost reached the Tropical Land parking lot; it stretched huge, flat and empty before them, a black asphalt desert. Shinichi shrugged again, a wistful look on his lean face. "I sure hope so..... this is the only way I can see the 'old Ran', after all, and vice versa." He tugged at his jacket, pulling it closed against the chill that always seemed to pervade their private dreamscape.

His companion grinned slantwise up at him. "Oh, you just want to sit on a bench somewhere and neck....."

His older self poked him with one finger in his ribs, a faint blush staining his cheekbones. "And this is wrong *how*---?? I mean, in the morning you'll remember anything I do as well as whatever you do or say....."

The boy chuckled. "I know; and here I am, stuck in a little boy's body with a not-so-little-boy's mind. That sucks, you know?" He sighed. "It's like we thought just before we fell asleep--- it's gonna be a long, long next few years. Rin and I have to grow up into our selves all over again. Hey--- " he turned to Shinichi, a curious look on his young face; "--- I wonder if you and me will gradually become one person again, or will there be two Shinichis here eventually? One the original, one an adult version of me?"

The older boy shook his head; they had crossed the parking lot by now and were approaching the open gates. "Beats the hell out of me; no idea. Guess we'll see, won't we? Unless Ai finds a cure, I mean." He reached long fingers out towards a carefully landscaped flowerbed, plucking a single chrysanthemum; the dark red petals were like silk against his skin, and both Shinichi and Conan shivered simultaneously at the sensation. "So-- does it bother you, the idea of you and me merging permanently?"

The boy reached up to run one finger across the petals; he grimaced. "Not really; I mean, it happens every time we wake up from one of these........... You're pretty sure they'll be here, huh?" He shoved his hands into his pockets, kicking at a pebble as they passed a darkened concession stand. Shinichi glanced down a little impatiently. "Yeah, yeah; I'm sure. At least---" His words were broken by a distant shout: "Shinichi? Is that you?"

Both heads whipped around. Ran stood a little ways away, over by the House of Mirrors; beside her a small form waved madly. "Conan-kun?" The little girl's voice was a soprano version of her older self's.

A little hesitantly they met together on the darkened midway; Shinichi's eyes widened slightly as he took in the sight of Ran-and-Rin, side by side. Two faces (one high-cheekboned and graceful, one heart-shaped and delicate) mirrored each other's expression, smiling shyly. They were both a little out of breath, as if they had been running; Ran smoothed her hair down with one hand and broke the silence: "Well-- we made it….."

Shinichi let out the breath that he was surprised to find himself holding; he fell quite naturally in beside her as they walked, with Conan moving alongside Rin. "Yeah... I'm glad it wasn't a one-time fluke. Was it hard, finding us?"

They both looked at each other, perplexed. Rin answered, her round face puzzled; "We--- don't really know, I think; I-- we-- just went to sleep and woke up behind the Arcade. You know--- back where we changed….."

Shinichi half-frowned half-smiled; "Yeah, I know." He glanced sideways at Ran's face; in the flash and glare of the park's blinking lights her face was a composition of delicate lines and curves. Her eyes threw back the glitter of the Mystery Coaster's gaudy façade like a field of stars as they followed the movements of the empty cars along the tracks.

*God, she's beautiful…..* he thought. Shinichi glanced down at Ran's smaller self as well; the little girl was watching him with a wistful, remembering look on her face..... For a moment he was awash with deja vue, as memories from his own childhood overlaid the face before him; gently Kudo Shinichi reached across and tucked the chrysanthemum he held into Rin's hair. She reached up to touch it with one small hand, smiling.

Beside her Conan smiled to himself in answer.

As they walked, going nowhere really, Ran's hand slid quietly into Shinichi's; startled, he stopped in his tracks and then was tugged sideways towards a bench. "Let's sit for a while….. I don't know how long we have like this, and I want to talk," Ran said, smiling a little. Conan opened his mouth to say something--- and then shut it abruptly at a glare from the older boy. "Ummm, sure--- me and Rin'll find something to do….."

Rin grinned at her other self and gave her a surreptitious thumbs-up, tugging Conan by the hand determinedly. The younger pair wandered off towards the distant roar of the empty coaster, talking softly together as they went.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

What Shinichi and Ran spoke of then neither could ever recall clearly later on; most of their memories would be hazy, filled with the simple, overwhelming relief of having found each other again. But the words didn't matter, not at all--- what mattered was being together, waking and sleeping, young or old. And in the end, when the words ran out and they fell asleep sitting on the bench with their heads pillowed on each other's shoulders, that was really all that they needed.

Off in the distance, two smaller forms mirrored them on another bench, worn out with riding the park's rides. They too had found everything that they needed…..

Each other, at long last.

************************************************************************

It must've been near dawn when they both awoke, slumped against each other on the floor of Conan's room beside his bed; there had been a noise.....

Conan yawned widely, blearily aware that something... wasn't right. _*I'm--- on the floor? Next to Ran??..... Oh; right. We fell asleep, and we were dreaming-----*_ Beside him the small girl rubbed at her eyes and began to speak: "Conan-ku---" She froze.

There was somebody else in the room.

A small figure (no larger than they were, surely) was standing over by the open window (_*Wasn't that closed earlier?*_ thought Conan), watching them. He--- and they could see now that it _was_ a 'he', a young boy--- had a curious expression on his rather pale face; leaning against the window-ledge, he fingered something small and shiny concealed in the palm of his hand.

For a long moment no one spoke. Then the small boy slid the whatever-it-was that he was holding into a pocket, stared Conan straight in the eyes and announced abruptly: "I found out." The soft voice seemed to raise echoes in the darkened room.

Conan/Shinichi tried to drag his intellect back out of the depths of sleep. "F-Found out what?" _*Who the hell IS this kid, and what's he doing in my bedroom? Window's open--- he must've come in there. He looks familiar.....*_

The boy answered him solemnly. "About the bad stuff. Daddy said not to look, but I did." A wave of sadness passed over the thin face, but he seemed to shrug it off. Moving soundlessly, he drifted over to the desk, picking up a copy of _The Hound Of the Baskervilles_ that lay open there. "Hey--- you've got the same name as the guy who wrote this, did you know that?"

Ran stirred, sitting up a little straighter to stare intently at his face. "Who _are_ you? How'd you get in here?" Her voice sounded rather small. He ignored her questions, flipping through the book. Closing it with a _flap_ of pages, he dropped it onto the desk. "That's too hard for me to read yet; you're smart..... I remember; in school you always look bored."

*'School'? Do I go to school with this kid?* Conan frowned; the boy looked so damned _familiar....._

His eyes were adjusting to the dark now, and he could make out a few more details. A plain t-shirt, blue or grey; jeans, dirty-looking tennishoes--- just normal little-kid clothes. He opened his mouth---

The boy turned abruptly back to the window, cutting him off. "I've gotta go now... it's time for school. It's _always_ time for school for me now." Glancing back over one shoulder he looked sad again. "I wish I could go home instead....."

Ran's small voice spoke up. "Why can't you? Are you in trouble?" 

For the first time he looked at her; shaking his head, his expression grew distressed and a little anxious. "I can't--- I have to go to school." Then his mood changed again as he swung around to stare back at Conan, determined. "Don't let _him_ get you--- he tries to act like he's nice, but he's not; he's a bad man. Don't let him get you!" The words rang sharply in the dark room.

Puzzled, Shinichi/Conan began to struggle to his feet. "Don't let _who_ get me? What are you talking about? What--- _what-----"_

He was addressing an empty room. In the blink of an eye, the boy had simply _gone._

"Uhhhhh-----" _*Gone?? No way--- he went out the window or something---*_ Stumbling, he made his way across to the window, barely aware that Ran was on her feet right behind him.

The cold night air his face with a blast of wakefulness, chasing the last cobwebs of sleep from Shinichi/Conan's brain; but that was of little help--- there was no-one below on the scrap of backyard lawn, or in the street, or on the sidewalk--- The little boy, quite simply, was _gone._

*No way. People--- kids--- don't just disappear like that. C'mon, Kudo, get your brain in gear.....* He craned his head to either side, leaning far out the window; vaguely he was aware of Ran clutching at his shirt from behind in an effort to keep him from becoming the Late Edogawa Conan, Lawn-art. _*Not here..... Where-----*_ Still leaning out, he turned to look up towards the roof; _*No scrapes or scuffs from a rope, nothing to indicate any other kind of lift mechanism..... no marks to either side of the window..... where the HELL did he GO?!!?*_

The boy became aware of a rather annoyed, piping voice: "--- if you don't _stop_ wiggling around like that, you're going to end up on your idiot head, and then you won't be able to--- Conan-kun--- _Shinichi--- _get back in here _right now!!--------"_ The grip on his shirt had grown tight and desperate, tugging hard.

*Oh. Right.* He slid back in through the window, landing in a heap below the windowledge. Through tangled bangs he stared up at the indignant, half-frightened small girl who stood before him, arms akimbo. "Ran....."

She snorted, the exasperated noise sounding rather funny in her lilting child's tones. "_Right_ out the window, with never a thought about gravity. You haven't changed a bit! No wonder you made such a convincing kid---"

Never mind that; not important. **_"Ran."_ **She ground to a halt, the lecture snagged by the look on his face. _"Ran..."_ he continued, his gaze fixed on hers. "..... That kid just here--- you spoke to him, right? I mean....." he searched for words; "....I wasn't just dreaming or anything, right?" The dark blue eyes that stared up at hers were, for a moment, _Conan's......_

The young girl shook her head, absentmindedly reaching out to brush the strands back from his eyes. "Not unless I was dreaming too. I saw him--- he was here, he spoke to us both..... and then he was gone, like a candle blowing out." _*And that will probably bother me a lot when I have the time to think about it, I guess.*_

Ran studied the boy, noting with a sense of wonder the shift in his dark blue eyes as they sharpened, grew introspective and thoughtful, went from _Conan_ to _Shinichi..... *So that's what it looks like from up close--- I've seen that look so many times before, that 'There's a mystery here' moment..... but never like this, never knowing what was going on in his mind.*_ She mentally thumped herself across the forehead. _*How could I ever have mistaken him for a normal kid? No normal little boy ever has that kind of look on his face.....* _

She slipped past him to stare out at the night, her small feet cold on the tiled floor even through her house-slippers. There wasn't much of it left--- already the stars were beginning to pale, dimming down to mingle with the faint glow on the eastern horizon... they had slept most of the night through, sitting side-by-side on Conan's rug. Ran blushed a little; innocent as it had been, she didn't think it would be a good idea to mention that to her father.....

Behind her there was a shuffling noise; she turned to see Conan settling himself into the chair in front of his desk; one hand reached for the Sherlock Holmes novel that the unknown child had been examining, riffling the pages absently. His eyes were distant, fixed on some elusive fact that danced just out of his reach; standing there with one hand on the windowledge, Ran felt a lump rise in her throat. _*That's Shinichi alright--- that face is the face I grew up with. He really hasn't changed a bit.*_ "Shinichi?"

He smiled briefly at the girl. "Go to bed; there's still an hour or so before we have to get up for school. I'll be okay..... I just want to sit and think for a little while. That kid--- he was familiar---"

Ran nodded, tugging her robe closed around her small frame a little more tightly. As she eased the door open, she heard a sharp gasp from the darkened room behind her and turned.

Shinichi sat bolt upright, a triumphal look on his face. _"Got_ it!!" He beamed at her. "He was that boy we saw in the park! You remember, Mitsuhiko's friend? The one who borrowed his flashlight! --- What was his name? To-- To-something....."

She frowned, thinking hard. "Toshiro, wasn't it? Something like that?"

He nodded, chin on fist. "Now....." The young-old voice was slow and thoughtful; ".....What the _hell_ was he doing in my room? And where did he go?"

Their eyes met, and she had no answers for him. Shaking her head, Ran sighed. "Goodnight..... Shinichi. Conan-kun......"

The small, somewhat distracted smile she received in return was enough to warm her through as she padded down the hallway to her room to spend the next hour or so in uneasy sleep.

************************************************************************

Morning, breakfast-time:

"Mom, it's no problem--- I'm _used_ to making breakfast every morning! Really, I can do it..... It's no trouble at all! And you've got to get to your office, ne? You don't want to be late---" The older male at the table looked across at the younger; identical exchanges of *_Thank God!*_ flashed between them. For once they were in perfect accord.

"Well--- alright, Ran-chan, if you're sure. At least let me make some tea....."

Wince. "Fine; but remember, only a few minutes for brewing..... and don't dump sugar and milk in the pot just because you like it Western style....."

***

On the way to school:

"I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this....."

"Ran--- uhhh, Rin-kun? Stop hyperventilating; you'll pass out. It's not so bad--- there's Recess and all, and I found a few ways over the past few months to make things a little more bearable---"

"Really? Like what??"

"I'll show you later. We're here--- c'mon, Rin-kun..... Out of the car. Let go of the door handle--- got your bookbag with you? Good. Easy now, you'll be fine. _Walk, _Ran--- I mean 'Rin'......... Oh, great; there's our own personal three-kid Escort Squad, all lined up and ready to go-----"

"Eeeeep. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can-----"

***

School, First Day:

"Ummm, h-hajimemashite--- My name's Himitsu Rin….."

************************************************************************

"See? It's not that bad....." grinned the young boy, settling down beside Rin on the playground bench. He shoved the glasses back up his nose and took in her rather woebegone expression. ".....Or is it? What's the problem? Did something happen?" His expression became anxious.

She shook her head, dark strands of hair flying. "It's not that bad, not really; it's just that--- well, there's things I'll miss from my old school. Like....."

"Like....?" Conan eyed her with some misgivings. 

She began to tick them off on her fingers. "One: Things to do. I mean, you always wish that school was _easier,_ but *this*---! Do you ever feel like your brain is going to atrophy? Two: Other girls my age to talk to. There's Ayumi-chan, but she's not Sonoko....."

*Thank God for small favors.* Conan rolled his eyes. _*I like Sonoko-chan okay, but five minutes after the Mouth With Legs hears our secret it'll be known from Okinawa to Hokkaido.....*_

"And, Three: Cute guys around to watch....."

"Hey!!" The young boy shot her a wounded look, which made her giggle. "Sorry, but no matter how, umm, _attached_ you are to one person... you still tend to--- window-shop. But all these boys are, well, _little boys....."_

He shrugged, feeling slightly disgruntled. "That's just as well, ne? Seeing as _you're_ a kid too....."

Ran crossed her arms in front of her, scowling. "So am I supposed to start developing some sort of crush on one of them? Maybe I should; maybe if I found one that was _interesting_ enough......" She turned her face a little away. Conan stared, a dismayed look crossing his face. "Ran!" he hissed; "They're _kids!_ You wouldn't--- you can't encourage that sort of--- I mean, I saw how half the boys in class were trying to get you to sit by them----"

For a long moment the little girl kept her nose upturned, face stubborn; but gradually a grin crept in around the edges, and she glanced sideways towards Conan. "....._Gotcha....."_

*Aaaaagh!!! I will never understand women! Doesn't matter what age they are, doesn't matter what SIZE they are, I will never understand women!!* He groaned. "Keep that up and I won't show you my favorite sanity-saver-----"

She swung her feet, looking at him inquiringly; her chestnut hair blew across her face in the light breeze, and Ran tucked it back behind one ear. "You said something about that earlier. What is it?"

Conan slid off the bench. "Follow me--- I can usually find him working in the south hallway about now---" They slipped off the playground into the cool recesses of the older part of the school, moving down towards the science labs that the older students used. A janitor's cart was parked in one hallway; much to Ran's surprise, it was there that Conan made his stop.

Glancing about surreptitiously, he hissed a quick sentence towards the hunched figure that was scrubbing at a dark spot on the left-hand wall: "Oi, Hei-san! What do you have today?"

Without lifting his head the coverall-clad figure muttered: "That Western magazine you like--- _World Investigative Report_, right? And then there's--- Who's this with you? You're usually alone....."

Conan grinned. "You'll have another customer, but I think she'll want to read something else. Rin-kun, meet Hei-san; Hei-san, this is Himitsu Rin. Got any of Ai-kun's magazines handy?"

The head turned. Brown, muddy eyes flicked briefly across 'Rin's' small figure, noting the curiosity in her sharp gaze. Untidy hair tumbled from under a workman's cap; the creased, slightly vapid face nodded to her. "Morning, girl. So you'll be reading Ai-kun's stuff? No problem....." Reaching a hand behind him, the janitor unerringly found a pocket in the rolling cart and produced a few well-thumbed magazines. Bemusedly Ran took them; _*What---? Cosmopolitan, Time, NewsWeek---? All translated versions, too. What in the world??*_

He reached back again, presenting the boy with several other periodicals. "Break room's open--- you can go in there. Looks like you've got about fifteen minutes before you have to go back to class." His rather dull face flickered momentarily with a surprising array of expressions: amusement, speculation, suppressed curiosity--- for a second, it was almost like looking at a different person. Then he shrugged, the vapidity sliding back into place like a mask. "Enjoy yourselves....." He reached behind him for a scrub-brush.

Conan chuckled, then pulled Ran into a side room; it looked to be some sort of faculty lounge, with couches and card-tables. The boy hopped up onto a couch, opening a magazine at random. "See what I mean? Short of Professor Agasa and Ai, this's been damn near the only sort of break I've _ever_ managed to get from being 'Conan-kun' twenty-four hours a day. This guy-- Hei-san--- I caught him one day about a month ago, reading through _Scientific American_; I started reading over his shoulder, and then I sat down and went through the pile of magazines next to him. He just stared at me for a few minutes, and then he brought out a crossword puzzle....."

Ran's eyes widened; she could just picture the two of them, working their way through the questions.....

"So when we finished, he just looked at me and said 'You're not exactly an ordinary kid, are you?' and I looked right back at him and said 'And you're not exactly an ordinary janitor, either, right?' And ever since then he's been bringing in all these magazines for me to read--- I sneak in here at Recess, find myself a quiet spot, and settle down for a bit......" Conan turned a page, his voice trailing off. "I don't ask _him_ why he's working as a janitor with a mind like that, and _he_ doesn't ask _me_ why I want to read _Scientific American_ and _Real Detective Stories._ I did find out that his wife's a librarian, though, which explains where he gets the issues. When we're done, we just leave them here; he'll pick 'em up later._"_

Ran sat down next to Conan; still a little puzzled, she opened _Cosmopolitan_ and scanned the table of contents. It looked to be a good issue. "But..... he really _is_ a janitor, right?"

The boy shrugged. "Just goes to show you should never judge a person by appearances; _we_ ought to know that better than anybody else-----" He turned another page, and she smiled to herself at the absorbed tone in his voice.

"Mmph. Guess so....." She turned to the article on page sixty-seven: _Living Longer, Loving Longer--- One Woman's Guide. _

*Bet I could give you a few tips, hmmm?* thought Ran at the author with a wry internal smile. She pushed back her long hair from her face and began to read.

************************************************************************

They were on their way back to the playground when they heard it; as the two simulacrum-gradeschoolers passed the storage room, it took a moment before the sounds caught their attention.

*..... _crying? The sound of sobbing.....?*_ Ran paused, a worried look crossing her face. Beside her companion's head whipped around towards the doorway to their left, marked with a small sign: _STORAGE-3B_. The sounds were faint; even as the two stood listening, they died away so quickly that it was almost possible to believe that they had not been there at all.....

..... except, of course, that they had both heard them. Glancing uneasily at Ran, Conan tried the doorknob; it refused to budge. Behind them both the janitor's rather toneless voice spoke up: "You won't be getting in there. _I_ don't even have a key--- far as I know, only one of the science teachers does." He continued to scrub at the same patch on the wall, muttering under his breath: "...stupid stain, won't come out even with bleach, who-knows-what splattered and left to dry and a gash in the plaster to boot....."

Conan cocked his head to one side. "Is there... somebody _in_ there? I thought I heard-----"

The janitor shook his head. "Old buildings like this, you get all sorts of sounds. Like I said-- nobody goes in there but the science teachers, and I never even see 'em go in at all--- guess they do it when I'm not around." He shrugged non-commitally, then glanced up at the two children. "Better get going," he suggested, wiping his hands on a rag that hung from his pocket. As the they turned to leave, he said casually, "….Got one of those new Mensa-level logic sets in the mail the other day--- want to take a look? Could bring it in tomorrow….." He tugged his hat low on his forehead with long, callused fingers.

The small boy grinned a little. "Sure-- we can give it a try. See you then."

The janitor just grunted, rolling his cart a little further down the hall. In the shadow cast by the brim of his cap, a faint, cocky grin flickered fleetingly past as he shuffled by the still-damp wall. 

Unnoticed behind him, the stain that he had been scrubbing bled slowly back into place, dark and fresh.

************************************************************************

*Lunchtime--- and apparently the menu includes 'New Girl du Jour'….. God, was I this silly when I was a kid?* 'Rin' ducked a thrown napkin for the third time. Scolding by Teacher had produced a slight modification of the class' behavior, but predictably it didn't last.

"Rin-kun! Catch!" Laughing, Mitsuhiko aimed a breadroll in Ran's general direction; by sheer luck she fielded it back towards the freckled grade-schooler, who shouted in enthusiasm and bounced it towards Genta.

Beside his companion in adversity, Conan swatted a flying chopstick out of the air with practiced absentmindedness; he took a hasty bite in preparations for the next volley. "Is it _always_ like this?" Ran said, swallowing quickly before any more airborne utensils headed their way.

Her companion shrugged, flashing her a rather strained grin. "No--- actually they're sort of showing off for you today; try not to encourage them, huh?" He winced as a crash behind him indicated a misfire.

Ran's eyes widened. _*'Showing off for me'??*_ She watched as two little boys did their best to imitate walruses--- the chopsticks that they were holding in the corners of their mouths made admirable tusks. Several seats down she heard Genta-kun arguing with another boy as to who could pick up the largest amount of food with said utensils…..

Still busily eating, the boy beside her sighed an exasperated sigh; he twitched slightly as another balled-up napkin passed overhead. At the head of the table Teacher emitted an identical twitch, watching the chaos resignedly. Ran shook her head and tried to work up a convincing look of 'I'm-too-shy-to-play-right-now', ducking low to eat her food. Another napkin bounced off the table beside her.

Under the cover of the noise, she muttered sideways in a prison-whisper: "Did you find anything out today about that kid we saw last night?"

Conan stirred his lunch a little, turning over a piece of carrot with a chopstick; he shoved his glasses a little farther up his nose with the chopstick's blunt end. "A little….. his name's Toshiro, Nodomo Toshiro. His dad works here at the school--- he's some sort of supply clerk. Toshiro hasn't been to school in four days….. His father reported that he was sick, then that he was out of town visiting relatives."

Ran smiled a little wryly. "There's a lot of that going around….." Conan snorted, and a momentary flash of _Shinichi_ gleamed in his eyes.

He continued, chewing on a bite and flinching slightly as another chopstick skittered across the table. "His dad's been here for years--- good record, no past convictions, nothing like that." She stared at him frankly. "How on _Earth_ did you find that out?"

Conan--- no, _Shinichi_ looked smug. "Snuck into the librarian's research terminal this morning, during the Free Reading period; you'd be amazed what you can dig up on the Internet these days, if you're careful….." 

He took another bite, eyes a little distant. "So..... Obviously Toshiro-kun's _not_ visiting relatives out of town, not if we both saw him twice in the last couple of days. That narrows things down to three major possibilities, with a number of variations: First-- Nodomo-san actually believes that his son is out of town, visiting relatives; second-- He's lying, and is aware of his son's whereabouts. Third-- he's lying out of ignorance or possible coercion and is _unaware_ of Toshiro-kun's location."

Ran took a swallow of her drink; the straw slurped noisily. "Conan-kun....." she dropped her voice; "Shinichi..... Do you think he was being held against his will? And maybe got away---? But why would he come to you instead of his father?" Her brow wrinkled as she worked at the puzzle, and Conan/Shinichi felt an unwilling smile tugging at his lips in spite of the seriousness of the conversation. 

*Is that what I look like when I think, that sharp look?* he wondered; _*Normal kids like Ayumi and the others don't look like that--- smart as they are, they're still kids, and they think like kids. No wonder Ran almost caught me so many times..... that's not a child's expression on that face right now.*_

He chewed on his lip, considering. "Well..... it sounds silly, but me and the Terrible Trio there" (he jerked his chin towards Genta, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko, who seemed to be in the process of recreating the Samurai class using chopsticks as weapons) "are fairly well-known as..... um.... the Detective Kids." Conan dropped his chin onto his chest; he knew what was coming next.....

"You mean the Detective _Boys,_ don't you? I saw the initials built into those little radio badge-things....." Ran's tone spoke volumes.

It was Shinichi who winced; but it was Conan who rolled his eyes up to heaven, groaning "It wasn't my idea! **_I_** didn't design them! Talk to Agasa-san!"

Her smirk said _"Gotcha!" _all over again.

Conan cleared his throat. "Ummmm. Well--- he might've come to us because of that--- but I still can't figure out where the hell he _went_ last night....."

The din of the lunchroom won out for a few moments as the two kept silent, munching on their last few bites. At last Ran lifted her head, a rather peculiar look in her eyes. "Um, Shini--- I mean, Conan-kun..... I really, _really_ hate to think about this, but..... There's only one thing I can think of that shows up and disappears without a trace....."

At that the boy rounded on her, shaking his head. "Don't go there. I know what you're thinking, and I don't believe in that sort of thing." He laughed shortly; it sounded forced. "Remember what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said in _The Sussex Vampire?_ 'The world is big enough for us; no ghosts need apply.'"

The class was beginning to haul itself to its collective feet now; the last of the napkins were flying through the air or sliding along the floor, and one lone chopstick rolled to a halt at Ran's feet. She looked down at the utensil as she stood; then she spoke very softly into the boy's ear: "And do _you_ remember what Doyle-san said in the _Sign of the Four?_ I've always remembered it--- you're not the only one who likes Sherlock Holmes, you know. 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' There's only one truth, Shinichi-kun.... _You_ taught me that."

As they filed in a more-or-less docile mass for the cafeteria door, the boy caught Ran's gaze with his own, dark blue and brown meeting. "Right. The problem's always finding out what it _is_--- and just who's responsible for hiding it in the _first_ place."

************************************************************************

Finally, _finally_, the interminable day had come to an end. As her mother's new car pulled away from the curb, Mouri Ran silently congratulated herself on surviving Grade Two, Day One. _*If I can manage this I think I can manage just about anything; and I'd better get used to it quickly--- this is going to set the pace for me for the next few years. God.*_

*But it's worth it.....* She only had to turn her head just a little to see the boy sitting beside her on the car-seat; without a word they had both climbed into the back, neither choosing to sit in the front beside Eri-san. _*If we were still teen-agers we might be, umm.... well, cuddling a little back here; nothing beyond that--- I mean, my mother's up front! But..... we aren't, and we can't, and we won't--- not for a handful of years, anyway.....*_

*.....a really long, long handful of years..... dammit.....* She blushed at her own thoughts. _*But I miss that! We had barely gotten beyond the 'friends' bit when this all started, and there wasn't much time for anything else to develop--- Well, no use crying over spilled milk; I made up my mind, and I'm glad I did. Even after today.*_

*But.....* Her eyes slid sideways; if she looked at Conan just right, she could see _Shinichi_ there: the eyes, of course, and the unruly dark hair that she had tousled unthinkingly so many times over the past year--- and the sweep of jawline, rounded now but angular someday--- the stubborn, stubborn chin-----

Ran sighed.

Beside her Conan shifted. "Ahh, Eri-san? Where are we going? This isn't the route to---"

She cut him off with a wave of one hand. "I know, I know--- I need to stop by my apartment and pick up some things, and I believe I have some of Ran's old things that might still fit her." Ran blinked. "You still have my old clothes?"

If Eri's face had been visible, she might have been blushing. "Maybe just a few boxes..... Your father was going to toss them out once you had outgrown them, but, well---"

A blare of horns blasted across whatever Ran's mother had been about to say; she cursed under her breath, maligning the other drivers' ancestry and ultimate destination after death. Conan gulped; he found his hand clutching Ran's without the least conscious thought of reaching for it.

*But it's warm..... and it's nice to have hands the same size again, isn't it? Though I wish she hadn't had to do what she did for that to happen-----* As always, when thinking about Ran's transformation, Shinichi/Conan felt a wave of guilt wash over him. _*Ran--- today was hard, I know; I hope you don't regret this too much.....*_ He snuck a look at her face; the large eyes were fixed on her mother's movements, a slight tinge of apprehension tinting them a little darker than usual. As Eri-san took the offramp towards her section of town, the boy felt the warm fingers tighten a little in his, and he looked down in surprise as their fingers interlaced. _*Ran--?*_

He glanced back up; she was smiling at him, just a little, her heart-shaped face innocent and beautiful in the afternoon light. The forefinger of her free hand went across her lips, signifying 'silence.'

He smiled a little himself and complied. The rest of the trip was too brief.

************************************************************************

Ran sat back on her heels. "All this stuff..... Mom, I had *no* idea you kept all this! Does Dad know?"

Her mother fidgeted by the open apartment door, looking out over the half-dozen or so containers of clothes, toys, etc., etc., etc. that she had just brought out of storage. "Not really....."

There was a rustling to one side of the apartment and an unenthusiastic grunt. "More clothes..... Hey! Ran, I _remember_ this outfit---" Conan held up a polka-dotted sweater. Indignantly Ran stomped across the room and snatched it from him. "You _should_ remember it, Shinichi-kun--- you got me completely soaked and half-frozen one day while I was wearing it! Remember? The snowball fight at the park when I was nine? You were chasing me with a handful of snow and I stepped in a hole right next to the pond and fell in---"

His face cleared and he shoved at his glasses with one finger. "Oh yeah-- you looked like a drowned rat---"

Ran snorted; Eri-san looked horrified. The boy suddenly came to the realization that a change of subject would probably be a _good_ idea just then, rooting hurriedly around in the box. "Umm, clothes, more clothes--- hey Ran, here's that top you were looking for-- catch! More clothes, _more_ clothes, some shoes--- and a photo album? This looks interesting....."

Leaving the door open, Ran's mother walked across the room to kneel gracefully beside the box. "Oh.... that one; I wondered where it had gotten to. Ran, you ought to see this--- Look: it's _you--- _right then, and right now....."

And it was. The pictures spanned the years between kindergarten and second grade or so; a wide-eyed, childish Ran laughed, romped, scowled or stared out of each photo. There were even a few containing Shinichi; kneeling on the other side of the box, Ran slid a finger across one photo. "Shinichi-kun, do you remember this one?"

(Engrossed in the album, all three ignored the faint sound of footsteps coming along the hall and stopping at the open doorway.....)

The boy frowned, tugging his glasses off absentmindedly. The photo was familiar, no doubt about that..... It depicted two children, both scowling; each wore costumes of some sort--- the girl had on a long white robe or gown and her dark hair was braided up on either side into coils, while the boy wore a simple white karate gi and held some sort of plastic sword in his hands. "Halloween, second grade," said Ran softly; "Do you remember, Shinichi? I was Princess Leah and you were Luke Skywalker--- I remember, you sulked because you wanted to be Han Solo instead." She giggled and the boy flushed, muttering "Hey, Solo had _class_; and he had a brain, which was more than Skywalker ever showed in the first movie....." 

Eri-san chuckled fondly. "You were both so cute--- you know, though? Your expressions aren't the same, not really; the more I look at these, the more differences I see. Ran, you look--- I don't know, _older_ somehow, even though physically you look the same-----"

(.....The figure at the door was stock-still, shocked into unaccustomed silence.....)

Ran rolled her eyes. _"Well,_ Mom, I have lived nearly eighteen years, you know--- despite current appearances! How much more different can you get? It's bound to show in the eyes-----" She turned to Conan, who was sitting absolutely still, staring straight ahead. "Don't you think so, Shinichi? ---Shinichi? What's the matter??-------- **_OH_**............"

Kudo Shinichi was staring directly at Suzuki Sonoko, who stood in the doorway, a perfect expression of horrified disbelief in her eyes as she took in the entirety of the scene and the conversation that she had just, _quite_ plainly, overheard.

The three guilty parties froze in place like frightened rabbits. And the only thought that passed through Conan/Shinichi's dread-filled brain as his gaze locked on Sonoko-chan's was this:

*Doomed. We're **doomed**. The Mouth With Legs has us dead to rights. We are so totally doomed.....*

******************************************************************************************************************

End of Chapter 2

(Hee hee; aren't I evil or what?..... Ysabet)


	4. Acceptable Losses

__

Ummmm….. please don't shoot me over the Waffy bits; it was a moral imperative that they be in there. Here goes, the last of the "relaxed" chapters before things get sticky. Disclaimers are as always; you know the drill!..… Ysabet

****

Chapter Four: Acceptable Losses

Suzuki Sonoko stared, her whitened face a picture of shock; the small bag that she was holding slithered down to the floor with a dull thud. Ran, Shinichi and Eri-san stared back.

There was a _loooong_ silence….. 

No one seemed either willing or able to make the least move; frozen in the moment, Conan/Shinichi felt oddly calm, thinking _*Well, it was inevitable--- somebody was going to find out by accident sooner or later--- but did it have to be the Fastest Mouth in the East?*_

That mouth seemed to be opening and shutting like a landed fish's right now; he had never seen such bugged-out eyes on a human being before.

At last Sonoko-chan spoke in a faint, faint voice: "_You---_ you're----- _What_--- I **_heard_** you-----" She couldn't seem to get an entire sentence out; after a few false tries, she blinked hard and closed her mouth with a snap. Then she looked directly at Eri-san and announced brightly: "I think I need to sit down."

And sit down she _did_, right there in the doorway, plopping down HARD onto the floor, *Thump!*. Eyes still saucer-like, Sonoko's fishlike gaze tracked from Ran to Shinichi, from Shinichi to Ran…..

Conan/Shinichi sighed. _*If I don't do something she's going to panic, and if she panics it's Game Over. Better handle this now.*_ He stood up, dusting his hands off. In his best 'Conan-kun' voice he chirped "Be right back, Sonoko-kun; don't go anywhere....." All eyes followed the boy as he made his escape into the seldom-used kitchen; no one else said a single word.

__

*Let's see, glasses, glasses….. ah, there we go. Cold water? No, something with some sugar in it. What's in the 'fridge? Oh good, some sort of juice-blend; that'll do.* He poured four generous glasses of the liquid, setting them on a small tray that he found under the sink. A demented sort of humor seemed to be blooming in him, making nervous laughter rise in his throat. Or maybe that was just incipient hysteria? _*I guess it could be worse,*_ Conan/Shinichi thought as he hefted the tray in both small hands; _*She could be having screaming fits about now instead of going into shock; shock's okay, we can deal with shock…..*_

The young detective wondered if he was getting jaded. Fighting back a slightly manic grin, he carried the tray back into the room.

No one had moved much as far as he could tell; solemnly the boy handed over each glass, feeling like the host at a party for lunatics. Sonoko took hers rather dazedly; she swallowed a huge gulp of the juice and seemed to relax a trifle. As Conan/Shinichi passed Ran's over, he met her eyes; dark with apprehension, they pleaded with him for help and widened enormously at his conspiratory grin and faint wink. _*Nobody's fault, Ran-kun, nobody's fault; it just happened. Who knows? Maybe this is a good thing, that she found out so early--- that is, if we can convince her to keep her trap shut about it. That'll be your job, mostly.*_

*Thank GOD it's not mine…..*

__

*.....and if you weren't with me right now, you know--- I'd really be panicking. All over the place, very loudly.* He sat down on a box, eyeing their visitor with an inquisitive stare; she was gripping the glass as if her life depended on it, her gaze still moving between himself and Ran in a continuous loop. After a moment's consideration he abandoned all attempts at sounding Conan-ish and spoke in what he thought of as his natural voice: "Ahhh--- Sonoko-kun? I guess it'd be silly to pretend you didn't understand what you just heard, wouldn't it-----?"

__

That seemed to catch her attention; the young woman's gaze rivited itself on the boy's face. After a few false starts, she was able to croak out a coherent sentence..... "You're--- Shinichi? _Really_ Shinichi? C-Conan-kun? And _Ran_ is-----" Her eyes swung towards the little girl who was now staring at the floor, fingers white-knuckled around her glass. Rising a little, Eri-san placed an arm around her young-old daughter's thin shoulders.

When she spoke, Ran's voice was very, very small. "I... couldn't tell you, Sonoko..... I'm sorry. The secret wasn't just mine to tell, or I would have----- I _wanted_ to. You've always been my best female friend, and I *_hated*_ keeping this from you." Conan nodded a little to himself, taking another swallow of his juice; he had figured as much. He fought back an urge to move to Ran's side--- this was something she had to deal with herself; his help would be no help at all, not right now…..

The small girl raised her huge eyes pleadingly to her friend's face; in that instance she seemed every bit the anguished child. _"Please_ don't be mad, Sonoko-chan--- I _couldn't tell you!_ Not just for comfort, not without real reason--- the more people know about us being like this, the more dangerous it gets!!" A single tear ran down her rounded cheek, followed a moment later by another. "… And now it'll be dangerous for _you,_ too….." she added sorrowfully, wiping at her eyes.

And _that_ got through even more than Conan's words had. Sonoko opened her mouth and then closed it, at a complete loss for words (not something that happened often, thought the boy). Slowly she rose to her feet, holding onto the doorjamb for support. As she approached Ran, the little girl shrank back against her mother for a moment--- and then, taking a deep breath, drew away and stood up.

Sonoko looked down at her friend's upturned, tear-streaked face; Ran's child-body barely reached past her waist.

__

"…..R-Ran?"

The little girl gave her a watery smile. "Afraid so….. Pretty funny, ne? Me being like this--- like--- _this---"_ The last phrase broke off raggedly as, for the first time since her transformation, Mouri Ran burst into tears.

Conan/Shinichi found himself on his feet without being aware of having even moved; he started forward, feeling his heart wrenching and thinking _*Ah, Ran--- I didn't mean to--- Ran, I can't stand it when you cry-----*_ but her mother motioned him back quickly. Catching the boy's arm she drew him down and whispered, "Let her cry. This has been hard on her, and sometimes that's exactly what a person needs-- to cry things out; I've been expecting it." The older woman's sharp eyes glimmered a little with her own unshed tears; Conan drew a hard breath and sat down quietly beside her, leaving Ran to sob out her tension and suppressed grief on the shoulder of her childhood friend.

******************************************************************************************************************

"Feeling better?" Eri-san handed the last refilled glass of juice to her daughter, who now sat on the living room couch between Sonoko and Conan.

"I guess….. I'm sorry--- I didn't expect to break down like that, not after I've handled everything so far without falling apart-----" Ran gave her companions an apologetic look and sniffed, wiping at her eyes with the back of one small hand.

Conan watched her, his heart aching in his chest; even with her eyes reddened and puffy, with her lashes starred together damply into points, he thought that she was the most adorable thing he had ever seen. What was that Western word for kids like her? _Gamin_, that was it, all pointy-chinned sharp-angled cuteness-----

And she had cried. Her situation had made her cry. In a way, _he_ had made her cry by drawing her into this-----

The boy looked away.

Sunk into gloom, it took a moment Conan to notice that somebody was speaking to him. "Conan--- _Conan_--- what's----- Oh." He raised his eyes guiltily back to Ran's; at his expression, she sighed and, reaching across, took him by the shoulders and gave him a slight shake. "Don't you **_dare_ **go all guilty and withdrawn on me now--- I _need_ you! I already told you a thousand times: _This was my choice, my decision; you're not responsible._" Beside her Sonoko shifted on the couch-cushions, watching them both with raised eyebrows and an astonished look. Eri-san sipped at her juice, a slightly ironic smile on her face.

They made quite a picture, the two teenagers-turned-children; Ran still held the boy by the shoulders, her somewhat tear-stained face determined and ever-so-slightly angry. Her eyes flashed fire as she shook him again. "Whenever you start feeling sorry for me like this you get all useless; and if you get all useless on me, how are you going to help me with--- with everything? I mean….." She dropped her hands and managed a fairly convincing smile, "….. the Shinichi _I've_ always known wouldn't sit there moping; he'd probably be arguing with me right now instead….."

He dropped his eyes again, grumbling: "The Shinichi you've always known is currently stuck in an economy-sized body; that tends to teach a person humility---"

On the other side of the couch Sonoko snorted involuntarily; "Humility? From _you?"_ She smothered a slightly shaky laugh. "Get real, Con-, I mean, _Shinichi-_kun; even like-- like _this_, you are _not_ the most humble person I've never met….. as Conan-kun _or_ Shinichi." The boy made a "hrmph" noise under his breath in slightly affronted irritation; Sonoko swallowed the last of her juice and placed the glass on the coffee table with a _clack; _she settled back against the cushions, looking quite a bit calmer. 

Eri-san muffled something that sounded suspiciously like a snicker. "Why don't you two get busy and explain to Sonoko-chan exactly what's going on? Before her head explodes, that is? I'm sure she'd appreciate an explanation….." The older woman stood, gathering their glasses to take them to the kitchen. "And in the meantime I suppose I could see about fixing some sort of dinner to take back with us for tonight….."

She placed the glasses in the sink and opened the fridge; "Let's see….. we have a little of this, a little of that; I could probably manage to do _something_ with the leftovers….."

Three horrified faces stared at each other, current traumas forgotten in the light of this new and potentially disastrous situation; while Sonoko had not been present for the previous evening's 'dinner', she had eaten Eri-san's cooking before--- it was not an experience one forgot in a hurry. "A-Ahhh, no, Kisaki-san---! Actually, the reason that I came by was to drop off some of Ran's things that she left at my place and to invite everyone out to dinner with me; my parents made reservations at the Shiroi Shofuu for this evening, but their plane was delayed and they called ahead to say that they won't be in until tomorrow….. Everything's on their account--- you know my father owns stock in the restaurant--- and they said, well, why don't I ask you all to go out with me?" She smiled at Ran, still looking a bit wide-eyed. "Sort of a 'Welcome to Japan' dinner for little Rin-kun, you know?"

From the kitchen doorway Eri appeared, wiping her hands on a cloth and looking rather pleased and surprised. "That's terribly nice of you, Sonoko-chan, but we'd hate to impose---"

The blonde cut the older woman off with a nonchalant wave of a hand. "No, no--- really, it'd be great! I mean, I was feeling sort of down-in-the-dumps about Ran being gone and all, so-----" She stopped there, a peculiar expression on her face. "Uhhhhh….. Well, you _know_ what I mean!" Conan flashed her a grateful look.

As Ran's mother turned back into the kitchen, she could be heard running water from the tap; Ran spoke very softly. "We'll convince her, Sonoko; what time do you want us to be there?"

The young woman's eyes were fixed on Ran's face. "Ummmm, seven-ish, I guess….. Ran? W-What does it _feel_ like? Being little again? And how in the _world_ did this happen to both of you?!?" Tentatively she reached out a hand to finger a strand of her friend's hair. "You look the same….. but _younger_, just like you did when we were kids….."

The small girl sighed, looking down at her knees. "It's a long story….." Unconsciously she scooted closer to the boy by her side, one hand seeking his. "Shinichi, would you start? Your part comes first-----"

He looked up from where he had been contemplating their linked hands with a slight smile; at the blond young woman's raised eyebrow Conan/Shinichi turned faintly red. "Alright, Sonoko-kun--- but pay attention; I only want to go through this once. Keep up with me, okay?"

Sonoko shot him what could only be termed a somewhat dirty look. "Don't _push_ it, Chibi-chan…" she muttered. He grinned up at her and began: "It started a year ago, when Ran and I witnessed a murder at Tropical Land….."

Eri-san crossed her arms and leaned against the kitchen doorjamb, watching her daughter's face as the tale unfolded once more.

******************************************************************************************************************

__

"Wait--- let me get this straight. YOU'VE BEEN LIVING AT YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S HOUSE FOR A YEAR?!?"

"………………………..………….."

"I'm surprised Mouri-san hasn't turned you into _fishfood_ by now….."

"Oh, _thanks, _Sonoko-kun--- that makes me feel a _lot_ better….."

******************************************************************************************************************

Several heartbeat's worth of silence….. 

Conan/Shinichi stopped pacing and cleared his throat. "Well….. that's my part." He cocked an eyebrow at Sonoko, who was looking (to put it mildly) quite stunned. "I left out a lot, but we can always catch up later. …..Ran?" He pushed his glasses up his nose with one finger and smiled at the little girl (who had, by now, curled up around a couch cushion as if for protection. She looked a little pale). "Your turn….."

__

(*And please God, don't let Sonoko remember Ran telling her about the hot spring resort…..*)

Ran took a deep breath. "My part starts out with flowers--- and a note." The child spoke to Sonoko, but her eyes were fixed on Shinichi's; he reddened again and ducked his head, sitting down cross-legged on a floor-cushion. Eri-san smiled to herself as she watched the interplay between them.

******************************************************************************************************************

An even _longer_ silence…..

Shinichi winced; he just _knew_ what she was going to say. _*Here it comes….. five, four, three, two, one---*_

****

"That is _sooooo *romantic!!!*"_ Sonoko was on her feet, pacing back and forth and dabbing at her eyes with a tissue by now.

__

*I think I'm going to die of embarrassment. Or kill Sonoko-kun; maybe I should do that instead. No, then I'd end up trying to cover up the crime and I know that hardly ever works for long…..*

Ran was crimson. Conan suspected that they made a lovely matched pair. _*Maybe she'd like to help me murder Sonoko? I can see the headlines now: "Gradeschoolers Caught Stuffing Body of Prominent Suzuki Family Member Into Incinerator--- 'Justified Homicide,' Claims Boy." Film at eleven.*_ He stuffed his hands into his pockets (to reduce temptation) and darted a glance towards Eri-san, who smiled back at him with far too much cheerfulness.

__

*I think--- no, I'm sure she's enjoying this. What IS it with that woman?!?*

Waving her arms, Sonoko burbled on: "I can't _believe_ you did that just so you two could be _together_----- Ran, that's the most *amazing* thing--- and here I've been thinking Shinichi was such a JERK all year for hardly showing up at **all**----- and all this time he's been right HERE, and he's been really pretty clever for a guy, and I bet it's been _awful_ for you, hasn't it Shinichi-kun---?" She stopped to draw a breath; then the Sonoko Express rolled right along-----

"--- and now you're both _little kids_ all over again--- it's like some really romantic anime, you know?? Trying *desperately* to find a cure!! Hey-- I'll bet my dad's company could work on it for you, they've got _all sorts_ of projects going on-----"

**__**

*Aaack!* Shinichi/Conan was on his feet, doing a little burbling of his own: "Uhhh, _no_!--- I mean, no thanks, Sonoko-kun--- t-that's not *necessary*, and besides--- one thing we HAVE to do is keep this a secret. Remember the Black Organization?"

Ran was right behind him, one hand reaching out to grasp Sonoko's wrist. Her eyes were pleading as she stared into her friend's face. "If anybody finds out about Shinichi still being alive, they'll---"

Sonoko-kun held up a hand expectantly; "--- don't tell me, they'll kill _him_, then _you_, then your mom and dad, then… umm, those kids you hang around with, right, Chibi-chan? And then Agasa-san, and then….. oh. _Me_." The blonde paused, slightly sobered. Then she brightened, looking around triumphantly. _"Bodyguards!_ My dad can hire bodyguards! Perfect!" She punched the air. Across the room Eri-san rocked back slightly, an appalled look on her face.

"Right. I _don't_ think so." Conan looked at Ran, telegraphing rather desperately with his eyes: _*Ran, she's all yours….. please? I'm just not up to dealing with Sonoko-kun….. For one thing, if she keeps calling me 'Chibi-chan' I may be driven to extreme violence. Please?*_

The little girl blinked at him for a moment. Then, as understanding dawned, she tugged at her friend's hand with a sigh and pulled her over to sit beside her on the couch. "Sonoko-chan, _please_ listen….." 

The next fifteen minutes or so were filled with escalating attempts to press the importance of absolute, total, rock-solid secrecy on someone that Shinichi had (with some justice) dubbed The Mouth With Legs.

Eventually the attempts succeeded. 

Eventually.

******************************************************************************************************************

A marginally-subdued Sonoko-kun parted company with a wave to Ran and a cheerful "Abayo, Chibi-chan! Kisaki-san! See you all at dinner!" The thoughtful look on her face had inspired dread in Conan; he had the feeling that she hadn't _quite_ dropped the idea of bodyguards entirely…..

After all, it would've been so _romantic._ The boy shuddered.

It was when they were passing by the streetlit area of Conan and Ran's school that his thoughts swung back towards the other problem in his life: the boy, Nodomo Toshiro. He gritted his teeth as the last lights of the school's playground flashed by; how the _Hell_ had the boy managed to slip out of his room the night before? He just couldn't see it--- and for Kudo Shinichi, this was a blow to his pride. That little suggestion of Ran's..... no. Nope, no way, no how; he just didn't believe in ghosts.

He spared a glance at the quiet form beside him; Ran was leaning against the window, her eyes half-asleep. It had been a _very_ long day, after all..... Conan smiled to himself, watching her eyes drift shut. Her long lashes lay softly on her cheeks, sooty-black in the dim light.

Back to Toshiro-kun.....

.....So how _had_ he gotten away so fast?? It was like having a sore tooth; the peculiarness of the whole thing just kept niggling at him-----

Well, then; concentrate on what he knew. That always helped.....

Item: Nodomo Toshiro, seven or eight years of age, had borrowed a flashlight from Mitsuhiko-kun several days previously for unknown reasons.

Item: Toshiro-kun had not been back to school since that time; he had instead returned the flashlight to Mitsuhiko via an appearance in the park, from which he had managed to slip away.

Item: Said flashlight had been caked with a substance which seemed rather unfortunately like blood. Peculiarly fresh, too; blood tended (Conan knew) to dry relatively quickly into a rather tough, flaky residue, although it did separate out into its various consistancies if present in enough quantity due to uneven specific gravities..... This blood had been fresh, or relatively so. What did it come from?

Moving right along.....

Item: Toshiro-kun had shown up in Conan's room, speaking to both himself and Ran in a rather disjointed fashion regarding someone who was 'not nice'. There was also the matter of whatever the kid had seen; frowning fiercely, Conan/Shinichi let the soft voice replay through his mind..... _I found out... about the bad stuff. Daddy said not to look, but I did..... Don't let him get you--- he tries to act like he's nice, but he's not; he's a bad man. Don't let him get you!_

Item: Toshiro's father, one Nodomo Hidori, had apparently lied regarding his son's whereabouts--- or, to be charitable, he might have simply been ignorant of the fact that his son was _not_ out of town, visiting relatives. Unproven. _Unknown._

Conan bit his lip. Something was _very_ wrong here.

What came next? _*Hmmmmmm; the only thing I'm sure of is that there's something going on, nothing more.*_ What else had Toshiro-kun said, there in the darkened bedroom? _ .....It's time for school. It's always time for school for me now....._

So school was a place to start. If Toshiro was hiding someplace-- if he was in danger from the 'bad man', whoever he might be--- then that only left three major areas of investigation to begin with: Nodomo Toshiro's home, his father's place of work, and their school. This had all the earmarks of a kidnapping and coercion case.....

School, then; but that could wait 'til morning. They had a dinner to attend first.

******************************************************************************************************************

Mouri-san had been caught napping in front of the television in a litter of fast-food containers and beer-cans; Ran's short, annoyed lecture about allowing the trash to pile up all over the place would've been more effective had it not been delivered from someone less than four feet tall. However, Eri-san's patented Death Glare had added impetus, and the announcement of dinner at the Shiroi Shofuu Restaurant had been eagerly seized upon as a distraction.

His reaction to the inclusion of Suzuki Sonoko into their little band of People In the Know had _NOT_ been so eager, however; there was much derogatory muttering regarding 'silly little spoiled brats' and 'rich schoolgirls'..... The detective seemed to take it as a matter of course that Sonoko-kun would keep the secret close.

__

*Shows what you know...* thought Conan/Shinichi, struggling into one of his good shirts. _*We're going to have to watch her like a hawk. It's not that she's a bad person, or stupid or anything--- her tongue's just hinged in the middle; it flaps at both ends.*_

He shrugged his jacket on and smoothed his unruly hair down, looking around for his favorite bowtie--- the one with Professor Agasa's little 'additons.' Where---? Oh, right; Ran had borrowed it the night before; it was probably either in her room or down by the phone.

The girl was not in her room when he stopped by; he poked his head around the corner, calling "Ran-neechan?" out of habit before he caught himself----- how many times, Conan wondered, had he called her that over the past year? Her open closet was still hung with her adult-self's clothing; from where he stood in the doorway he could see the dress that she had worn that night that the Kaitou Kid had taken on her appearance..... The boy shook his head; so much had happened over the past year.

At the bottom of the closet lay her shoes, neatly paired; in front of them lay several little-girl sets of shoes, incongruously small in comparison. A discarded house-scuff sat forelornly on the rug in front of her bed, scarcely longer than his hand. He shook his head again, turned around--- and caught his breath.

The little girl standing shyly in the hallway was..... well, she was _Ran,_ from a decade before, from a very, very particular memory.

__

(They had gone out to a play, he and his parents--- some musical thing, rather boring to seven-year-old Shinichi-chan. And then they had met up with Mouri-san, who had been a policeman up until recently; and there was Ran-chan, who he played with all the time. Except that Ran-chan was all dressed up in a green dress of some soft stuff, something that she told him was called 'velvet'. She had looked so pretty..... It was the first time that he had ever thought of his playmate as anything other than just plain 'Ran-chan', and the first real time that she had registered in his mind as a girl. Green velvet.....)

*She looked so pretty..... just like now. Ran-chan. Rin-kun.*

Rin brushed at her dress with one hand, fingering the velvet. "I found this the other day when we were shopping; do you remember, I had one sort of like it when I was little?" Her long hair was tied up with a ribbon of pale green silk.

Conan/Shinichi smiled a little, sliding his glasses up his nose. "I--- think I might remember it, maybe--- you look really nice, Ran. Rin-kun."

The little girl dimpled at him, dark eyes sparkling. "You look good too--- except--- oh, your bowtie! It's downstairs by the phone. Come on.... 'Chibi-chan'......"

He groaned. "Don't. Just _don't._ If Sonoko had any clue how close she came to being mauled----- Ran, I _know_ she's your friend, and I _know_ we have to get along now that she's aware of the truth, but-----"

Mouri Ran grinned back at him as they reached the living room. "I know, I know, I saw how you looked earlier; she _can_ be a bit of an airhead, can't she? But she has a good heart....." Carefully the small hands fastened the tie at his collar.

__

*It's not her heart I'm worried about,* thought Conan, grumbling; _*It's her mouth.*_

******************************************************************************************************************

Dinner at the Shiroi Shofuu Restaurant, the _White Maple_; Sonoko was waiting for them in the lobby, eyeing several of the younger waiters as they hurried past. _*If she didn't act so-- so predatory, she might get somewhere; doesn't she know that any guy seeing that kind of look is gonna turn and run?*_ Conan loosened his collar slightly with one finger as the hostess seated their party at a candle-lit table.

The cuisine was splendid, the view over the bay lovely--- it wasn't often that the Mouri clan managed to dine in such affluent surroundings. Sonoko in particular was in high spirits; she seemed genuinely glad of their company. Watching as she leaned over to speak to Ran, it occurred to Conan somewhat ironically that she might actually be rather lonely; after all, Ran _had_ been her 'best female friend', as she had put it. Granted, the young woman was outgoing, occasionally cheerful to the point of obnoxiousness, brash--- but how many real friends did she have? Lots of acquaintances….. but maybe not that many real friends.

That sounded perhaps a little too... familiar; the boy shrugged to himself and took a drink from his waterglass. Over the brim he was uncomfortably aware of how both sets of gazes would occasionally fix on his face; well, that was to be expected. They both knew about him now, Ran had done a _terribly romantic_ thing, and he was apparently the conversational Topic of the Day.

His eyes flickered uneasily in their direction; they both promptly seemed to lose interest in studying him, digging into their food with concentration. Only faint, smug smiles remained on their faces, identical smiles that seemed to say _you don't want to ask us, really; you don't want to know what we were discussing….._

__

*Rrrrgh.* Conan hunched his shoulders a little, sweating.

Across the table Mouri-san murmured something under his breath to his wife that made her laugh; it looked as if the estrangement really _had_ begun to approach an end. Funny how things happened sometimes--- you made your choices, you accepted the consequences..... _*Those two're going through their own changes, just like Ran and I; you don't have to be a detective to see that.*_

Behind the cover of his chopsticks Conan snuck another look at Ran and Sonoko; now Ran was looking a little pensive, her heart-shaped face ever-so-slightly sad. The candles reflected back from her dark eyes, glimmering softly; the pale silk of the ribbon in her hair seemed to flicker like a flame. For one long moment Conan/Shinichi seemed to see the face of the young woman she had once been; the illusion was oddly clear in the flickering glow.

She was so beautiful; watching her, Shinichi almost forgot to breath.

Then the moment passed, and a draft across the candleflames turned Ran back into Rin--- no less lovely, but still a little girl. He sighed as reality reasserted itself--- Shinichi became Conan once again, just a little boy out for dinner with his 'family' and friends. The boy dropped his eyes to his plate, stirring his glass-noodles with his chopsticks. Idly he ran his thumb over the imprinted silver-white maple leaves on the blunt ends--- the motif was everywhere throughout the building, imprinted on the linens, the rugs, carved into the woodwork, impressed into the ceiling tiles. As Conan ran his eyes idly around the room, his attention was caught by a shimmer of something _golden_, falling out of nothingness, descending through the air to one side like a shining mote of candleflame-----

**CLING-LNG-LNG-LNNNNG!!***

The sound rang clear and bright through the soft music and hushed voices of the restaurant. More than one head turned to look. The boy craned his head; something small and bright lay on the tiles at the carpet's edge, right by the next table over; without really thinking he slid from his seat and knelt, reaching---

What the--- a _coin?_ Kneeling on the tile's edge, he examined the thing he held in his hand curiously. _Half_ a coin, actually, with European writing (in Latin, he thought), bright and shining yellow---

He looked up at the man sitting alone at the small table beside him; the diner surveyed him with some distaste. "Ummm... is this _yours, _Mister?" he asked in his best I'm-a-cute-little-boy voice. The man snorted, a rather ugly frown creasing his face. "No" he said shortly. "Go away."

"But---" He held out the half-circle of metal; it _had_ to have been dropped by the man in front of him--- there was no-one else nearby enough to have dropped it---

The man fixed him with a hard look. "I said 'Go away'. What part of that don't you understand, brat?" His eyes flickered across the bit of bright metal in Conan's hand without interest as he turned back to his meal; he stabbed at a bite as if it had personally offended him.

__

*Bad case of atitude you've got there, guy; what's your problem?* Affronted, the boy shrugged small shoulders and drew back; _*No skin off my nose if you don't want it.*_ He had turned halfway towards his table when a growl of _"CONAN!!"_ reached his ears, briefly, just before---

"THWAP!!!!" Mouri-san's fist impacted with the top of Conan's head as it had so many times over the past year out of exasperation, out of irritation or a thousand other reasons, good or bad. _*Owwww....*_ The boy glared up at the detective. Mouri-san stood over him, glaring. "Stupid--- stop bothering the patrons, boy! Sit down!" His frown was thunderous.

Conan glared back sullenly; usually he would've backed down at this point and played the irate gradeschooler, but... not anymore. Rubbing at the sore place on his head, he fixed the older man with a very steely, very _Shinichi_ look and hissed : "You do that to me _one_ more time, Mouri-san, and you're going to get an eight-year-old fist in a place you **_won't_ **want to get hit in! You _understand_ me?"

Kogoro Mouri froze, visibly backtracking; Conan could almost see the wheels in his mind turning. *"_Oh, right-- this isn't a little kid--- I just popped Kudo on the head, not 'Conan'---" Idiot.*_ "Ahhh--- erm--- " he sputtered, trying to form a sentence; "Right," said the boy firmly, pushing past him to his own chair. The three woman of varying ages at the table eyed him uncertainly; muttering, he hopped up onto the seat and returned to his meal. Across the table Mouri-san sat back down, uncharacteristically quiet.

__

*He's probably trying to count up how many times he did that over the past year. Looks kind of worried, doesn't he? Serves him right. I am SO damned tired of being bopped on the head!*

The rest of the meal passed fairly calmly; Eri-san joined Sonoko and Ran in a discussion regarding Summer vacation--- Sonoko was all in favor of the beach again, while Eri had her sights set on someplace in the mountains. They were both obviously trying so hard to distract Ran (who seemed to be feeling a little depressed--- occasionally a saddened look would cross her face when speaking with Sonoko. Deep inside Conan, Shinichi's heart worried for her) that the boy did his best to stay out of things.

The thought of Europe led in turn to the half-disk in his pocket; as the meal drew to a close, he slid it out onto the tablecloth to get a closer look. _*Huh; sure looks like gold, and all the way through, too! Who the hell dropped it? I didn't see anyone else--- we're sort of in an alcove, that guy at the other table and us. Somebody must've thrown it, or---?*_ Conan squinted at the ceiling; in the dim light it was difficult to be sure, but he could detect no holes in the ceiling or small ledges to hold the bit of metal. 

Curiously he turned the thing over in his fingers; worn with age, the picture and writing were difficult to decipher. However, he could _just_ barely make out VICTORIA:D:G: running along the half-circle curve, along with a partial profile of a stern-faced woman with an imposing pearl-wound bust. On the back the picture was less clear--- some sort of mounted warrior, a snaky something being trampled underfoot by his horse---? And beneath it all were the Romaji numbers '89'. Part of a date, he supposed..... The shorn edge had once upon a time been rough--- no saw had neatly sliced this from its mate; probably an axe or something similar. Time had smoothed the crude severing into an acceptable roundness, time or wear; for at the top of the half-disk was a small hole, pierced for the link of a chain.

A luck-charm of some sort? It had seemingly appeared out of thin air; granted, neither Conan nor anyone else had evidently been looking that way at the time, but….. He ran his fingers along the worn edges of the coin; odd. If somebody had tossed it across the room, why hadn't they come to retrieve it? Surely they had seen him pick it up….. and it _was_ gold, after all…..

Another mystery. There seemed to be a lot of them lying around lately.

Conan fidgeted in his chair, aware of Ran's eyes upon him. When he glanced up, she quirked one eyebrow enquiringly; he passed over the half-coin for her to examine. Frowning, she ran one small finger across the stern profile. "This looks like--- I don't know, a British coin, maybe? European, anyway….. is it actually gold?"

The boy shrugged; "Don't know--- it looks that way, though. Did you see anybody drop it?" Beside Ran, Sonoko leaned forward for a closer look and bit off an exclamation. "I know what this is--- my mom's got one that belonged to some sort of moldy old aunt or something; it's a gold Sovereign. Look, that's the English Queen Victoria there---" and she took it from Ran's palm, turning it to display the back; "--- and that's Saint George, killing the dragon. And it _is_ gold, or at least my mom's is….."

The blonde looked puzzled. "But why cut it in half? It's not worth nearly as much that way….."

Eri-san reached across the table for the small, glinting bit of gold; she frowned briefly, looking remarkably like her daughter. "In the past, it was customary occasionally for sweethearts to cut a coin in half, each one keeping part of it as a keepsake," she said slowly; "It was more a European custom than an Asian one, and not usually done with something as valuable as this….." At Conan's questioning glance she smiled a little, handing the half-disk back. "One of the secretaries in my office has a half-farthing on a charm-bracelet, left to her by _her_ great-grandmother; it was the sort of thing one did back in Victorian England."

Beside her Kogoro Mouri grunted a disapproving grunt; he seemed to have recovered his share of aplomb. "Damn fool thing to do to something valuable….." His wife turned to look at him, one amused eyebrow arching. "Oh? And _who,_ may I ask, still has a coin from the first payment he ever received as a private detective on his key-chain, hmmm?" Mouri-san reddened slightly as his fellow diners muffled snickers or hid their grins behind discreet hands.

Dinner ended quietly. As they were leaving, Eri-san spoke to the hostess regarding their 'find', leaving a number for contact should anyone claim the half-coin. Shrugging on his jacket, Conan glanced back at the sour-faced customer at the nearest table. _*Funny; that guy looks sort of familiar….. Now, where do I know a jerk like that from? One of Mouri-san's clients? Or suspects, maybe? Somebody from the police station?* _His detective's eye noted the well-fitting suit and expensive watch; it also caught the stains on the man's fingertips as he wielded a knife and for Western-style as he attacked his steak dinner. _*Steak? Well, he's not poor, that's for sure. Now where do I know him from---?*_

He eyed the diner's fingers; the stains could be from any number of things from what he could see--- ink, chemical burns--- it was hard to tell. Scratches, too; even from here it was easy to see the jagged weals that ran across the back of his right hand, disappearing under his shirt-cuff.

As if feeling the touch of Conan's gaze against his skin, the dour face suddenly jerked up from his meal; the young detective found himself spotlighted by a pair of angry eyes. He actually took a step back for a second--- there was a level of paranoia and disdain in those eyes that was unnerving to see. _*What the hell's wrong with him?!?*_ Then a merrily chattering group of fellow diners passed between them and the moment was broken.

"Conan-kun?" Ran's clear voice called to him from the exit; shrugging, the boy turned away, fingering the smooth half-circle in his pocket as he went.

******************************************************************************************************************

It was much later; outside in the street the noises of passing autos had dropped and dimmed to near-silence, and there was only the faint, persistent rush of distant traffic deeper in the city to break apart the quiet. Eri-san had driven off to her apartment to stay the night there--- she needed to pick up several changes of clothes if she was to continue on at the Mouri's home as she had been for the last few days. The sound of the door closing behind her had long since faded, and for the moment all was peaceful.

__

"Kudo."

The boy paused on the way to bed; ever since Mouri-san had cleared out a spare room used previously for file storage to house their erstwhile 'dependent', he had prized his privacy. Granted, the room was small and the window leaked something fierce in the winter--- but it was _his_, and tonight he needed a haven badly. It had been a _long_ day. Conan was tired, his nerves were frazzled, and he felt like nothing more than a long, in-depth session with his pillow. _*If I really WERE a little kid,*_ he reflected wryly, _*I'd want my teddy bear about now. And maybe a hug.*_

But---

__

*Somehow I just don't think that's gonna happen…..*

Kogoro Mouri sat on the couch in the darkened living room, fluctuating light from the window his only illumination; beside him a beer can sat in close attendance. He slouched there, arms crossed, glowering at Conan.

__

*Uh oh….. Wonder what he wants now? Gonna chew me out for acting my age, Oji-san?* Silently the boy paused against the doorjamb; tugging off his glasses, he crossed his arms in unconscious imitation of the older man and cocked his head to one side.

The detective looked away from the piercing young eyes; his own looked a little older than usual tonight, despite the beer's influence. "Kudo--- " he began, his voice raspy and abrupt; he cleared his throat. "Ah, well….. that is----" He stopped again. 

Conan gave a mental shrug. "Was there something you wanted to tell me?" he asked, trying not to sound as tired as he felt.

The older man was silent for a moment, still looking out the window; the flicker of a neon sign a street away made strangely-colored reflections in his eyes. After a moment he spoke. "Look--- boy--- _Kudo._ One thing I've never been good at is, erhm….. saying I'm _sorry_--- that's not, well….." His eyes shifted back momentarily towards the small, waiting figure, then away again. "--- Don't think you're going to hear that sort of thing much--- But---- errhm….."

Now he swung around, facing the boy squarely. Black eyes met dark blue; after a long pull on the beer, he cleared his throat again. "That--- hitting you on the head thing--- hrrmph; won't say you didn't _deserve_ it, but… it wasn't--- well-----" Mouri-san floundered for words, his face growing red, his eyebrows clenching.

__

*I can't believe what I'm hearing….. is he actually trying to apologize for bopping me on the head?!? Oh man, this is too good to be true!* Conan was becoming more interested with each word. He finally decided to give Oji-san a break before the man worked himself into a coronary. "Never mind--- tell you what: you don't give me any more lumps on the head, I'll try to be less of a brat, okay?" He grinned a rather unchildlike, sardonic grin at the detective. "**_I_** won't say I didn't deserve a few of those either, now and then; it's been a rough year."

The older man snorted in agreement. His sharp eyes focused on the young detective's deceptively innocent face; "Kudo….. Tell me. How many times--- _really_--- did you help out on cases? Besides what I saw, I mean?" The gruff voice dropped dangerously low. "….. professional pride---" he growled.

Conan sighed, dropping his chin to rest on his crossed arms. "Yeah, I know. Tell me, though----- do you _really_ want to know the details? That's all past; it won't help for you to know, and it won't help for me to tell it. You'll just get pissed off at me and I'll just get paranoid." He managed a crooked grin; his face looked remarkably older in that moment. "If I say too much I'll end up sitting up nights waiting to be suffocated with a pillow or something….. Anyway, who cares? They got _solved._" He shrugged. "If you're really going to let me continue staying here with you we ought to work out how I can help you _now_. Sort of a way to earn my keep, huh?"

Mouri-san blinked, a frown darkening his face even further. "…Help me _now?_ What makes you think I'd want help from you at all? You're a---"

The boy nodded; "---a _kid,_ Mouri-san; one who's already known to the police, a kid who can get into places without people paying much attention--- who notices what a little boy does? A kid who can shadow suspects and just look like he's playing like any other kid, who _knows_ what to listen for and can _think,_ not just react." Conan looked the older man squarely in the eye--- and Kogoro Mouri almost shivered; there had been a second, just the barest second when he could've sworn that he was staring _Kudo Shinichi_ down, not that little twerp Conan. It had to be a trick of the light…..

Conan took his momentary silence as encouragement to go on; he smiled wryly at the detective. "I'm more of a 'work alone' type too--- but hey, I'm here; why waste my skills? I _have_ helped out over the past year--- you were right about that when you asked me about it a few days ago… I couldn't help it. So….." He shrugged, an oddly adult gesture, tugging nervously at his bathrobe sash; "….. why don't we work together?"

Kogoro Mouri's brow wrinkled; he smoothed his moustache down, thinking. "Hrrrmph; I don't know, boy….. What makes you think we can manage without my tossing you over the side of a bridge after a case or two?" He looked down his nose at the small, pajama'd figure, who smirked back up at him.

"Simple. You already told me, 'Oji-san'--- you need me to help take care of Ran. Remember?" The boy beamed up at the detective, all innocent cuteness. Then the boyish smile slid sideways into a chuckle. "C'mon, Mouri-san--- make me earn my keep! Why the hell not?….. You can always say that you're training me up as, I dunno, an apprentice or assistant or something."

__

*…..and if you can stand it, **I** can….. though we'll just have to see who trains who…..*

Mouri-san took another pull on his beer, considering; the tips of his moustache turned up a little as he worked his way through and around the idea, looking at it from all sides. Conan waited, leaning casually against the doorjamb; only his hands displayed his nervousness as they knotted and reknotted his bathrobe sash. _*This just might be okay, if he can get past that damned pride of his; I mean, unofficially we've been working together for a year now, even if he didn't know it. I don't think this'd be a good time to tell him about the sleeping darts…..*_

For several long moments the room was filled only with the distant traffic sounds, surging and receding like the faint, hushed murmur of an urban sea. Then the older man grunted and upended his beer, finishing it and tossing the can towards the garbage; it hit the rim and spiraled in. "Earn your keep, hmm?….. We could--- try that, I suppose….." He eyed the boy, who stared back with one eyebrow raised, not giving in a bit.

Arms still crossed, Conan nodded. "S'pose we can." _*Better not push it, Kudo; be smart and leave it at that.*_ He stretched a little, yawning. "We can figure it out later, I guess. Good night, Oji-san….."

The detective also nodded, eyes a little wary…. and, just perhaps, a little relieved as well. "Good night….. Kudo."

******************************************************************************************************************

His hand was actually on the doorknob to his room when he heard the sound: sobbing, very soft. It tore at his heart and pulled him away from any thoughts of sleep, down the hall towards Ran's room.

Her door was closed; it was a wonder that Conan had heard anything at all (but then, hadn't he been expecting just such a sound? Hadn't he been listening for it all along?) Very gently the boy pushed it open.

The little girl lay huddled on the bed, arms wrapped tightly around a pillow; her face was buried in its depths and her narrow shoulders were shaking. For the longest moment the young man/young boy hesitated, fighting a strong urge to back out of the doorway….. But then, closing the door behind him, he knelt beside the bed. "Ran…?"

Silence; but the tension in the shoulders relaxed a little, became less rigid. From the general area of the pillow's expanses came a rather muffled voice. "Sorry…" She drew in a long breath, one that choked off in a sob. "--- feel so stupid--- I'm not r-really that upset, it's just-- just that, seeing S-Sonoko tonight-----" The words trailed off into a hiccup.

Still Conan knelt there, wondering what to do. Tentatively, gently, his hand seemed to move of its own accord, coming up to stroke her dark hair with a feather-soft touch. She went on, her voice still the quavery tones of a very small girl. "I didn't mean to--- to break down like this." Ran gave a little self-depreciating laugh into the pillow, turning her head. From where he knelt helplessly Conan/Shinichi could just see a single dark eye, lashes spiked with tears. "I guess…. that….. I'm just really beginning to understand what I, what I've given up….. to understand what I'm going to miss."

The boy drew a hard breath, sinking back onto his heels. _*She--- Ran, I knew you'd regret this, I knew it--- and there's nothing I can do----- I wish I could-----*_

Her next words seemed almost an echo of his thoughts. "…it's not that I regret it, and I _don't,_ not really--- but I wish….."

"….. I wish I knew how long it'll take before it stops feeling so, so strange….. Tonight it was like Sonoko and I were on two opposite ends of a bridge--- I mean, we're still the same people, we can still talk to each other and all that, but _she_ was over _there,_ and I was over _here_---"

"A year."

The words slipped out before he really realized what he was going to say. Ran turned her head on the pillow, blinking at him. "What?"

He sighed, a long sigh full of twelve months' worth of loneliness that he neither would nor could ever quite acknowledge, even to himself. "A year. When… when you changed… that's when I stopped feeling like the whole world was at the top of a cliff while I was at the bottom. When I stopped feeling like--- when I stopped feeling---" His words ground to a halt as he groped for a way to explain. "It hasn't been all bad, not all the time--- mostly because of you--- but sometimes I've felt like I was standing outside, looking in a window; and everybody in the world besides me was on the other side of the glass." He smiled crookedly, staring at nothing.

Now Ran sat up, staring at him; the strands of her hair slid from his fingers like silk and his hand dropped to hang at his side, limp and empty. Her heart-shaped face held the traces of tears, but the large dark eyes were intent only on Shinichi--- her own sorrows seemed forgotten. "But--- but you had me, sort of-- 'Ran-neechan'…" A trace of a smile crossed her eyes. "And there was Haibara Ai… _she_ knows what this is like too. Didn't the two of you have that in common? Didn't that make things… less lonely, Shinichi?"

He shook his head, his smile fading. "But you didn't _know,_ Ran; and I had to lie and lie and _lie_ to you the whole time. And as for Ai--- well, she's got her own issues; she's not exactly the easiest person to talk to…... I don't see _that_ improving much, considering what she did to you….." Shinichi's small hands clenched into fists, white-knuckled, and he raised his head to stare her in the eye.

"I know you say you don't regret this, but… but Ran, how _can't_ you regret it? I mean, I've _been there. _I remember how it was, the first few days….. sometimes I almost wished that that damned capsule had done what it was supposed to do-----"

At that her jaw dropped. "Shinichi--- that-- that's _stupid._ You could've told me---!"

Shinichi shook his head again, slumping even farther back onto his heels. "Told you? It was hard enough even _thinking_ about it at first; I think I spent the first few days in a sort of shock. If it hadn't been for that mystery with the little kidnapped girl--- you remember?….. Ran, if there was a way that I could, could reverse what you've done---"

"--- if you did, I'd wring your neck!!" she said fiercely, making his head jerk up in surprise. He stared wide-eyed as she leaned forward, an angry look on her small face. "Shinichi, I swear, sometimes Sonoko's right--- you _are_ a jerk! How many times am I going to have to tell you that I _made up my own mind_ here?!? Honest to God, if I have to _*smack*_ you one I'm going to get that through your head! Regrets? Of course I have regrets! Don't _you??_ I mean, no more 'Ran-neechan' anymore either, just 'Rin-kun.' But.…. just because I don't like losing some of the things I've lost _doesn't mean_ that I'm not happy about some of the things I've, well, _gained._"

"Shinichi….. It's been a lonely year for me _too."_ She looked down at the coverlet, the smallest of smiles curving her lips. "So-- so stop being such an idiot about this or, or I swear I *will* smack you!"

The boy started to answer, then stopped; he stared into her eyes for one long second, then grinned a lopsided grin, faint but there. "Don't _you_ start….. I think I finally broke your dad of the habit of bopping me on the head tonight….."

Ran sniffled a bit and attempted a smile, brushing the hair back from her face. "I know you said something to him at dinner; what was it? He looked, um, kind of surprised…"

Shinichi told her.

__

"What?? You didn't..... You threatened to hit him right in the----- umm----- _Shinichi!_ That was---"

He snickered, glad to see her giggling. "---that was effective. Did you see his face?"

Ran bit her lip, trying to fight back her laughter. "Well, I can't say he didn't deserve it..... but you know, 'Conan-kun, sometimes you _were_ an awful pain in the---" she paused, clearing her throat.

He widened his eyes, trying for his best 'Innocent Puppy-Eyes Conan' look. "Me? Hey, I'm just a cute little boy---"

Ran cut in severly. "---who's going to get himself _beat up at school_ by a _GIRL_ if he tries *that* look on me again....." She made a fist and a mock threatening gesture at him and he laughed, climbing to his feet. Folding his arms Conan/Shinichi nodded; "Feeling better now?"

Ran smiled. "Yeah. Better..... I won't say it won't be hard, but--- well, it's okay. I'll manage." When she looked at him then, her face held a sort of wonder. "It really... _has_ been a lonely year for me, Shinichi; I've been at loose ends, a bit." She ducked her head a little, small fingers picking at the threads of her blanket. "I think that's why... why I did it, mostly. So neither one of us had to be lonely anymore."

Conan swallowed a lump in his throat. "Ran..."

Looking up, the little girl shook her head. "Oh, go to bed, Shinichi-kun--- Conan-kun; you look worn out. It's okay; really, it's okay."

The boy smiled back, slipping through her door. "Goodnight, Rin-kun."

"Sweet dreams..." he whispered softly to the closed door.

******************************************************************************************************************

His room, _finally._ As the door shut with a welcome _click,_ Conan leaned against it with his eyes shut, drinking in the relative silence and privacy of his small sanctuary. Palms spread flat against the wood, he sighed a long sigh.

__

*God. This has been the longest day since the dawn of time. Missing kids, Way Too Much Sonoko, weird coins, surly diners----- I want my BED.*

__

*Right. Now.*

Glasses went onto the nightstand along with the gold half-coin, house-slippers were kicked flying across the room, and one very weary young boy/young man went to bed at last. His final thought as the world faded away was a reflection that nothing, _nothing_ short of the house burning down around his ears was going to drag him from sleep; he had had far too many interrupted nights lately.

__

*After all, I'm a growing boy….. snzzzzzzzzz.*

Sleep.

******************************************************************************************************************

Dawn.

Faint, gentle rays slipped between the buildings and through the open window of Conan's room; they slanted easily across his rug, creeping up to stroke his closed eyelids like curious fingers. The boy stirred slightly, mumbled something indistinct and turned over in his sleep.

**__**

*bump!*…..** *bamp!***…..** *b-bump!***….. ***whump!***…..** *bwmph!***-----

The noises were jarring; not that loud, but peculiarly invasive and sleep-destroying. Vague dream-thoughts of soccer matches past dredged Shinichi up from the depths of sleep, and he opened Conan's eyes to blink at the light.

__

*Rrrrrgh?? Somebody's--- practicing their kicks? Really bad soccer player, their aim's all off, you can hear it---- never make a goal with a kick like that-----*

Slowly it registered that soccer games were not usually played in his bedroom, and that whoever was making the noises was probably outside on the miniscule scrap of grass and trees that served as the Mouri apartment's backyard. It _also_ registered that the unknown soccer player was _probably_ using his ball. Stifling an urge to bury his head under the pillow, the boy slid out from under the covers and stumbled across to the window. _*This had better be worth getting out of bed this early--- damn, the sun's hardly up--!*_ He leaned out the window, yawning. _*Thought this was closed when I went to bed….. Now, who the hell's kicking my--- Oh.*_

The boy on the grass below was crouched down, involved in fishing the soccer ball out of a bush; but even without seeing his face Shinichi knew who he was. _*Toshiro-kun. WHY does he keep showing up here?…… And no, I'm not thinking about what Ran said, not one word of it. I don't believe in ghosts. And since when do ghosts play with soccer balls?*_ He cleared his throat and put on his Conan-face, slipping into persona with the ease of a year's worth of practice. "Uhhh… Toshiro-kun? What are you doing here?" The words came out a little more abruptly than he had planned, but the face that turned up to his showed no upset; in fact, the kid looked sort of glad to see him.

With a half-smile on his thin face, Nodomo Toshiro rummaged around in his pocket and held up something that reflected the early sun's rays back brightly. "I came to get my coin….. It's neat, isn't it? My mama gave it to me when I was little." Shinichi/Conan opened his mouth, but the boy went on conversationally, turning the half-coin over in his fingers to trace one side with his thumb. "She kept the other half. It's real gold, you know; Daddy said it's called a 'Sou-fu-ren'." The boy pronounced the foreign word carefully. "You're supposed to keep it with you so you remember the person who has the other part. My mama--- she died when I was a _really_ little kid." Carefully he slid it back into his pocket, hitching up his pants with the other hand.

Conan blinked down at the gradeschooler, then turned to look back at his nightstand; the half-coin *was* gone. "Toshiro-kun? Are you… okay? You haven't been staying at home, have you? Where have you been?" _*And how the hell did you get your coin without my hearing you? For that matter, how'd you toss it into the middle of the restaurant without my seeing you in the first place?*_ This was giving him a 17-year-old's headache in a 7-year-old's skull…..

The smile melted from the boy's face like frost from a sun-warmed window; a look of distress replaced it, and he shook his head. "I don't--- it's kind of hard to explain---" _*Bump!!*_ went the ball as a particularly hard kick sent it against the wall. Toshiro ducked his head, frowning hard; he dug one toe into the grass underfoot, then looked back up at the other boy. 

The words burst from him like the outpour from a broken dam, half-angry, half-despairing. "I don't _like_ it where I am now--- I don't like it! It's dark all the time, and there's only one window, and I can't reach high enough to open it and---" He stopped, a distracted, unhappy expression on his face; "I don't like it…." muttered Toshiro, stooping to pick up the ball. He hugged it hard to his chest as if for comfort.

"…I want_ out. _I don't want to_ be there _anymore….." The boy's whisper was scarcely audible even in the quiet of a city dawn.

Conan was silent, mind racing. Something about the look on Toshiro-kun's face… where had he seen that look before?

At last the child looked back up at him, pleadingly. "Will you help me? I HATE being shut away….. My dad always opens my window for me so I don't feel so, so _closed in_ when I go to bed, but now I _can't reach_ _the window---"_ His thin voice cracked and he looked back down at the ball. "I can get out for a little while to talk to you, but I always have to go back--- if I don't, he'll come and get me again, I _know_ he will!" Toshiro shivered, dark eyes filled with anguish.

The light was growing ruddier, more golden; it filtered across the lawn, casting shadows of buildings and lamp-posts, of trees and bushes, of a ball. And Conan remembered where he had seen that look before: it had been on his own face, every time he had looked in the mirror during the first few days after his transformation, when things had been… hard. That was the face of someone in a _trap._

At last Toshiro sighed; he seemed a little calmer now. With a resigned look that sat oddly on his face the child hugged the ball in his arms for a second more. "The sun's up…. the teachers will be coming to school soon, so I've got to go. Here--- catch!" and he tossed the soccer ball up towards Conan with fairly creditable aim.

Conan caught the ball; it was warm to the touch. "Go where---??"

He was talking to an empty yard. Toshiro-kun was _gone….._ again. Undeniably, completely, unexplainably _gone_. 

And this time he had been actually *talking* to him when he had disappeared.

__

*That's….. not possible. He was right here…..* The ball dropped unnoticed from his hands to the grass below, bouncing over to lie in the shadow of a bush. _*He was right here.*_

*Not possible.* 

At first it was pure disbelief that kept Conan kneeling there, staring out the window. But as the light in the East brightened, disbelief became wonder, and wonder turned at last to speculation. The facts ran around and around in the young detective's brain like squirrels in a cage; coins, soccer balls, missing children….. And then there was that trapped look; somehow, for some reason, it cut through everything with its sense of _urgency_. 

In the end, Ran had to call him three times for breakfast before the young detective noticed; when Conan finally walked away from the window where he had been for the past hour his gaze was still turned inward, deep in thought.

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*To hell with this; I need **answers**.* It was time for the investigation to _really_ begin.

****************************************************************************************************************************

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End of Chapter 4

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Ready for the next chapter? I'm working on it, I'm working on it….. and I promise: no more "Shinichi gets all angsty about Ran taking the capsule" anymore!! Enough, already; but you know, the guy'd HAVE to feel pretty damned guilty, and as for Ran's being all weepy in this chapter, ummmm….. shock will come out, sooner or later. For the sake of realism, I had to include those bits. So there! (Author makes a face, sticking out her tongue and pulling down one lower eyelid in the time-honored Anime tradition.) Next chapter will start out with the real flesh and bone of the mystery; I promise you skulkings and shadowings, hidings and clues and more peculiar janitorial goings-on. And, quite possibly, blood. Oh, yes. We'll see, won't we?…….. Ysabet, smiling sweetly (Hey! I kept this chapter under 11,000 words! I'm getting better at this! Just barely over 10,000 this time!)

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	5. Show and Tell

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Second Wind

By Ysabet

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Chapter Five: Show And Tell

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Scribble, scribble, scratch….. Scribble, scribble….. *crumplecrumplecrumple---*

*WHAPPITA!!* The ball of paper bounced off the rim of the trashcan, spiraling its way in to lie with the rest of its fellows in the great Wadded-Up-Balls-Of-Paper graveyard. Conan swore under his breath, irritably chewing on the eraser at the end of his pencil.

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*Crap.*

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*Pattern, pattern….. There has got to be a pattern in all this, some sort of common element…..* Thoughts of missing kids, golden sovereigns and bloody flashlights shuffled through his mind like puzzle pieces, each one vying for a place. _*Nothing quite adds up; I don't know enough--- not even the brightest detective can work in a vacuum.*_

A _*thump!* _on the top of his head brought Conan abruptly out of his brown study. _*Uhhh--??*_ Dark eyes looked directly into his from beneath long eyelashes as the small girl sitting opposite him ruffled his hair with a playful hand, having knuckled him a moment before. "Hey--- time to go to school, Conan-kun... What's wrong?" Ran quirked one eyebrow up, her expression inquiring.

He rubbed at his eyes tiredly. "Just thinking....." _*...and not too well, I might add; this is driving me crazy!*_

Mouri Ran studied him, heart-shaped face tilted a little to one side. "Mmm; about that boy, ne? The one we saw the other night?" She glanced at the clock and slid down from her chair, landing on the floor with a slight thud. "You can think about him while we're walking, can't you? We need to get going or we'll be late." She shrugged her backpack onto her shoulders, handing his to him. "Here we are, both of us heading off to gradeschool, and I _*still*_ have to hurry you out the door... some things never change."

Conan had to grin. "You did the same thing a decade ago," he pointed out; "At least you've had practice."

Ran snorted, tucking a strand of chestnut hair back behind one ear. She waved at her parents, who sat arguing amiably over something in the living room; her mother waved back absentmindedly as the front door clicked shut.

This would be Ran's-- that is, _'Rin's'_-- second day at school; Conan eyed her curiously. "You're awfully cheerful this morning..... You'd almost think you were _enjoying_ the idea of going back to grade school. What gives?"

Walking shoulder to shoulder with him, the young woman/young girl shook her head. "Not exactly _enjoy,_ but..... it is kind of interesting--- I feel like I'm sort of on holiday from my regular studies. And besides---" and now she smiled at him, Ran's smile on Rin's face. "--- It's kind of nice spending the day with you at school again; even grade school, you know?" She shot a slightly mischievous glance sideways at him. "I've _missed_ you, Shinichi."

He flushed, ducking his head; he could feel his dark mood melting away little by little. "Umm, me too. I mean, I've missed you too..... sort of, that is--- you've been right here, but.... um. Well, you _know_ what I mean....." The blush was creeping to his ears now (they were always next); time for a major change of subject before they met up with the kids, or he'd have Genta and Mitsuhiko teasing him too. Conan had learned over the past year that children could smell potential embarrassment a mile away….. "Ummm, Ran--- I had a visitor last night again."

She paused in resettling her backpack, an apprehensive look on her face. "Toshiro-kun? Was he in your room _again?"_ She tightened a strap. "I wish you had woken me up-----"

He shook his head, kicking at a blown leaf on the sidewalk. "No, not in my room; he was down in the yard, playing with my soccer ball." The boy grimaced. "He said some pretty weird things, too..... You know, though, this is looking more and more like a coercion and kidnapping case all the time." He tilted his head back, hands in pockets, watching as another leaf whipped past on the wind; it was a blustery day. The morning breeze smelled faintly of ozone; _*Hmm; storm on the way?*_

Beside him, Ran frowned. "So if he's been kidnapped, how does he keep showing up? And why doesn't he go home if he can get away so easily?"

Conan shrugged. "From what he said last night, he's scared; there was something about somebody 'coming to get him again'--- he was obviously frightened half out of his wits. Poor kid....." His eyes took on a hardness behind the lenses. "He's got to be somewhere at our schoolj--- maybe in an office somewhere, or a disused classroom? Someplace out of the way--- someplace with one small window, someplace nobody but the kidnapper can access." 

Those eyes darkened in determination, blue deepening; Ran watched in fascination as, for the barest moment, Shinichi's features seemed to overlay Conan's. "I don't know where he is yet… but I _will_ know, one way or another." A wry smile crossed his face, and he glanced sideways at the girl. "Ready to learn a bit about detective work from a less-than-four-foot-tall perspective? It's not much fun sometimes, I'll warn you; when you look like this it's _hard_ to get anybody to take you seriously….."

Ran frowned. _"I_ always took you seriously!" she protested. She sneezed as a gust of exhaust from a passing vehicle blew into her face.

For a moment their footsteps rang across the pavement in unison; then they fell out of sequence as Ran's slightly longer legs broke the match. Conan shook his head. "Most of the time you did--- I could almost always count on that. But Ra-- um, _Rin-kun_, let's face it--- we're _kids._ There's really only a handful of people I could trust to listen to me: you, Captain Megure, Inspector Shiratori, Hattori Heiji, Professor Agasa, Ai....." His face darkened a little at that last, and he shook his head irritably as if dislodging a fly. "What I'm trying to say is-----"

"---- is that nobody _listens_ to kids much, right, Conan-kun? And it's not _fair!"_ The pair jumped at Ayumi's voice, coming suddenly from behind them. The child giggled at their expressions, dodging around them to walk on Conan's free side. "I guess Conan-kun's telling you about the Detective Boys, ne? It _is_ kind of hard sometimes to make grownups pay attention." She sighed, tugging her jacket closer against the wind. "Sometimes it's _tough_ to be a detective," Ayumi told 'Rin' solemnly.

Keeping her face straight, Rin nodded. "I guess it must be. But some people listen to you, don't they? Like Conan-kun was saying, there's Megure-san and Shiratori-san and the others. Right?"

The little girl nodded enthusiastically. "Mm-hmmm; they're nice. And it's a lot of fun, being a detective, even if you have to do a lot of running around and thinking hard and paying attention, and sometimes you see _dead_ people's bodies--- that's yucky--- and sometimes you see _bad_ people too." Ayumi's face drew down in a frown for a moment. "I think the _bad_ people are scarier than seeing dead people's bodies, really; they're worse. You just usually feel sorry for people that get killed....." She brightened back up; "And we've been to a LOT of cool places, too-----" In quick succession she began a slightly garbled, rapid-fire listing of some of the sites that the young detectives' cases had taken them to, while Rin listened in amused (and slightly alarmed) interest.

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*Rin-chan, it looks like you've made a new friend there; I'm glad. This lot can be awful pests, but they do make things a little better. And Ayumi's a good kid.*

Conan's thoughts wandered away from the two girls then for a while, back towards the matter of Nodomo Toshiro. As the three sets of small feet slapped against the pavement in a tripartate rhythm, his annoyance and irritation slowly returned--- along with a measure of resolve. _*Nobody, but nobody is going to get away with a damned kidnapping right under my nose--- and the first thing I need to do about this is add to my data. Hmmmmm....."_ It was Conan who fumbled carefully in one pocket, but _Shinichi_ lurked gleefully behind his eyes as he ran a careful thumb across the small translucent sticker-microphone "bug" that Professor Agasa had designed for him. _*Cool. I thought I had remembered to take this with me this morning--- I'm glad I don't have to wear it on the button of that dumb jacket of mine anymore. It's a hell of a lot more convenient like this.*_ He slid the device back into his pocket, slipping his glasses off to check the side arm where the tiny speaker was hidden; it seemed intact. _*Been a while since I used this--- but I can think of the perfect spot for it. And all I have to do is talk to my good friend the Janitor.....*_

And as Genta and Mitsuhiko pelted up to join the three on their way down the last block before their school, Conan smiled to himself, a smile that had something sharp and fierce in it. _*Hang on, Toshiro-kun; I'll find you, wherever you are. I promise….. I'll find you.*_

*************************************************************************

Gradeschool, reflected Conan, had its good points as well as its bad points; in gradeschool, no-one ever expected a kid to act like anything other than a kid. So his fidgeting passed unnoticed among all the other wriggles of bored school-children.

Recess couldn't come too soon. _*Fifteen minutes--- no, twelve 'til the bell rings.....*_ he thought with an internal sigh.

He snuck a glance sideways at 'Rin'; as Teacher droned on in her cheerful monologue about the following week's field trip to the Tokyo Zoo, the young girl was carefully scribbling something down on a scrap of paper torn from her notebook. Watching her, Conan/Shinichi felt a wash of deja vu ease over him: _*She's going to pass me a note.*_ How many times had just this situation happened to them both in the past, their private little written conversations and arguments?

She finished what she was writing, folded it carefully, and surreptitiously slid it along towards him behind the cover of her elbow. With all the finesse of a cardsharp Conan palmed the note, opening it to read:

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am bored to tears. can we find janitor at recess again? or are we going to look for toshiro?

Conan bit back a grin; that sounded like Ran, all right. Cupping the note behind one hand, he scribbled his reply:

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planning to talk to janitor-- need to get into supply office. can you keep ayumi-chan and others busy? gomen...

The slip of paper made the journey back into Rin's hands unnoticed by Teacher; she opened it, read it, scowled dreadfully. Moments later her reluctant reply lay before Conan's eyes:

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can do, though would rather investigate with you. be careful! don't take chances, o.k.?

Glancing sideways, he rolled his eyes; Rin crossed hers and stuck her tongue out in answer. Struggling to hold back a snicker, the boy drew a careful caricature of her face, eyes askew and tongue protruding; he passed it back over. Rin viewed it with a sideways glare--- and then, much to his surprise, folded it up and tucked it into her pocket. Drawing out another scrap of paper, she scribbled something else down, sliding it quietly across the desk for Conan to view:

A _heart_, with the kanji for 'Shinichi' and 'Ran' in its center. He could feel his cheeks burning, and a slow rush of something warm seemed to infuse his body from the knot in his throat all the way down to his toes. Deja vu once more brushed against Conan/Shinichi in a feather-light touch, recalling a day when he had seen the same thing drawn on the back of Ran's notebook some five or six years past.

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*Ran, that's playing dirty…..* He could practically _hear_ her silent chortling.

As he reached for the page, a larger hand slid into view, removing it from the desk; they both froze. Mildly disapproving, Teacher chided them: "No notes, now; you both know how to behave in school....." The classroom filled with giggles as the students regarded the unusual sight of Conan, usually a model-if-somewhat-bored student, under fire as it were. He was flushing beet-red now as Teacher examined the note; her frown softened into a look of surprise and understanding as she glanced down at Himitsu Rin, New Girl….. and at Conan. Folding the note, she placed it gently back down on the desk; "Your kanji's lovely, Rin-chan, but inaccurate; I'll show you how to write your and Conan-chan's names properly later."

Rin blushed; as if in answer, the Recess bell rang shrilly. Teacher turned her attention away from them both, calling "Everyone! Line up for Recess! Take your places, everyone--- no shoving, Genta-kun! Samatsu, get back in line--- you can talk to Aoshi later! Class---"

Conan picked up the paper, folded it, and stowed it carefully away in _his_ jacket pocket. As chairs rattled and voices clamored all around them, Rin stage-whispered: "See you later, Shinichi; have fun!" And she was away, talking animatedly to Ayumi as she went. The boy stared after her departing form, shaking his head; _*If I live to be a hundred--- if I have to repeat childhood a dozen times over--- I swear, I will NEVER understand women…..*_

*************************************************************************

"Toshiro? Skinny little boy, kind of pale, doesn't say much? His dad works in Supply? Nope; haven't seen him around here in a week or so. Why?"

Conan shrugged under the Janitor's casual appraisal. "Just curious. So he hasn't been around after school or anything like that?" They were both sitting on the steps just beyond the south hallway's main door; from where they perched they could easily make out the screams and shouts of Recess without being seen. The Janitor took another swallow from his thermos of tea, tugging his cap a little lower. Brown eyes slid sideways towards the boy's face, studying him surreptitiously as he thumbed through a magazine; behind them the pages of a logic puzzle riffled in the wind just inside the open door. "Nope; sorry. Might want to check with his dad….." suggested Hei-san, peering into the depths of his thermos.

The boy nodded. "Guess I could….. He doesn't seem to be around much either today." That had been his first stop when he had slipped out of the playground, but the door had been locked tightly.

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*And the keys look to be in your pocket today, instead of hanging on your cart as usual. Crap. So much for "borrowing" them and sneaking a look at Nodomo-san's office--- I wonder if Professor Agasa knows anything about lockpicking? Guess I could ask him this evening...*

"I could leave him a note, maybe… if I could get in his office. But--- oh well;" Conan shrugged, tuning his 'little-boy' self up a notch and smiling brightly at the Janitor. "Toshiro-kun'll probably be back tomorrow. Thanks anyway, Hei-san!"

Hei-san the Janitor eyed him, tilting his thin face a little to one side. The creased features were oddly expressionless for a moment, the muddy eyes sharp; then everything slid back into its usual vapidity. "No problem." He yawned. "Long day, eh? Got to get back to work--- stupid stain won't come off the wall, got to scrub that again--- stupid grousing science teachers to avoid--- stupid idiots keep leaving _all_ the windows open--- like I said, long day." As he reached sight-unseen behind him to gather the papers together Conan found himself watching Hei-san's hands; they worked, deft and effortless, shuffling pages like cards in a deck. _*Good hands on him--- funny, though; somehow they don't quite match his face, do they? They remind me of something, the way they move…..*_ The thought had occurred to him in the past that the Janitor had more than his share of peculiarities *besides* his obvious intellect. _*And maybe that's something I had better think about, soon as this case is over---*_

As they stood, something slid from the man's pocket to land with a jingling clatter on the step: a ring of keys. Conan stared for a moment, then stooped to pick them up. "Hei-san---?"

The Janitor waved him off with a shrug as he tugged at the handle of his maintenance cart, pulling it after him. "I'll get 'em back from you later." The boy opened his mouth, then shut it with a snap, frowning. _*Hei-san…?? what the hell---?*_ The keys slid between his fingers as they tightened around the bunch, each one neatly labeled with a room number. Conan shook his head; this was too good to be true. _*Hei-san, I don't know what your game is here, or why you trust me with these….. but thanks; this'll make things a hell of a lot simpler.*_

He had better use what time he had left--- what, fifteen minutes or so until the bell would signal the end of Recess? As Conan dashed breathlessly down the deserted hallway, he wondered how Ran was doing…..

*************************************************************************

"--- and that's Surako-chan over there on the slide, and there's Ryuu-kun and Senma running over there--- Oh! Senma-kun, are you okay?" The little girl waved madly as she double-timed it across the playground, towing a slightly-overcome Rin-kun behind her. Her fallen sempai shrugged and pulled himself up from his tumble, taking off in a cloud of dust. Drawing a breath, Ayumi continued: "And over there's Hitomi, she's from Okinawa, and that's Saguru-chan--- Saguru-chan, this is Rin-kun, she's Conan-kun's girlfriend--- Rin, you're all red!" She paused to giggle, still dragging the other girl behind her. "Oh, and that's Shiba, watch out for him, he's sort of a bully--- and that's---"

*************************************************************************

The sign on the door read _SUPPLY OFFICE-R27_. And, as had been previously noted by one small detective, the room was to all appearances locked and empty.

Welll; that was nothing that a set of keys couldn't fix. A quick insertion, a twist of the knob, and the door opened to reveal---

--- a particularly messy office. Conan frowned, shutting and locking the door quietly behind him. _*I can't say much for Nodomo-san's organizational skills if his office usually looks like this*_ he thought absentmindedly, toeing aside a pair of empty coffee-stained styrofoam cups at his feet. The room really was a disaster area; papers were piled everywhere, fast-food containers littered countertops, the school-issued computer monitor needed a severe wipe-down and there was a suspicious hint of something stale and pungent in the air: the boy sniffed. _*Beer? No--- a serious drunk usually takes their poison from a bigger bottle. Something else….. Souju? Cheap stuff, too.*_ There had been a spill of some sort recently, that much was clear. Nose wrinkling, he sniffed again. _*Something else….. coffee?? LOTS of coffee--- huh; it's all over the carpet. No wonder the room stinks of it.*_ He knelt, running one small hand across the nappy surface; grounds were scattered everywhere underfoot. _*So much--- hmmm, there's the boxes in the corner; 'Daisuke International Coffee Products'-- not a main brand, that's for sure. Sounds like something you'd use to clean out drains with…..*_

Tugging his glasses from his nose and wiping at a smear on one lens with a shirttail, Conan surveyed the stack of empty boxes. _*Fourteen cases? Of coffee?? Isn't that a bit much for one school in a country where tea's the preferred hot drink? I mean, unless he got a really good deal---*_ A bit of quick thumbing through a file-drawer or two produced a set of invoice files; Daisuke International's invoices were fairly numerous, reaching back for more than two years. _*Since when do the teachers drink THAT much coffee? Hrmph; he ordered filters as well, but….. enough? And let's see--- two cases every two weeks on a regular basis, one hundred sixty pre-bagged allotments of coffee per case-- that's three hundred twenty pots of coffee over ten working days, which comes to thirty-two pots of coffee school-wide per day. No way; in America, maybe, but not in Japan, and not in a school this size.*_

A quick look at the rest of the invoices indicated no other unusual excesses, though it would take a more detailed examination to be certain. The young detective closed the drawer gently.

*Well, I was looking for something unusual-----* Conan/Shinichi scowled up at the untidy pile of boxes. _*--- and I guess I found it. Something else-- those boxes have all been opened, and a few of them are empty… but not all of them by any means. Why open a box without needing to? Coffee gets stale, right?* _He bit his lip in frustration. *_Hey, Toshiro-kun--- I don't suppose you're hiding out in those boxes, are you? That'd sure make this easier, wouldn't it? But no such luck.*_

He glanced up at the clock; five minutes before the Recess bell was to ring. _*Crap--- Get your butt in gear, Kudo; do what you came to do and get out before you get caught.*_ A quick pressure of the thumb, a moment's work with both hands to adjust the settings, and the small "bug" had a new home on the underside of the desk's computer keyboard. One more quick look around, then it was time to head out-----

Rattle-rattle… click…

*Oh, SHIT!!!.*

The doorknob was turning.

It wasn't really a conscious decision that propelled Conan/Shinichi towards the pile of boxes--- it was more the sort of thing that sends cockroaches scurrying across the floor towards dark corners when a light is turned on in a decrepit kitchen. He slid into his coffee-scented haven of safety with a single thought in mind: _HIDE!_

Heart thumping, the boy peered from between two askew cardboard barriers as the door opened. If he had been even a _little_ larger in size--- sometimes it was almost good to be short; it made hiding that much easier.

From his viewpoint he could pretty much see the entire office (it wasn't that big, after all); and as he watched the current head of the Supply department shuffle into the room, Conan congratulated himself silently on keeping his cool. _*I mean, if I had planned this it couldn't have worked out better. Really. This is just perfect--- I can see everything, and I'm sure the opportunity to leave will present itself sometime in the next five minutes….. or **not**….. and I didn't really just leave my GLASSES LYING ON NODOMO-SAN'S DESK, did I? Nope, no way, of course not. I couldn't have been that stupid, could I?*_

*Yes, I could have. I **did**. Those're my glasses right there by the phone, sure enough. I put them there when I planted the bug, didn't I? And now he's sitting down….. I am totally, completely screwed, aren't I? Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid---*

The worn desk-chair creaked as Nodomo Hiroku took a seat; he wasn't a very intimidating sort of man--- as thin as his son, with wire-rimmed glasses hanging on a lined, prematurely-aged sort of face. Something traumatic in his past had carved those furrows in his skin, had grayed the hair early and given him those bags beneath his eyes; a small part of Conan's panic-numbed brain dimly recalled the fact that Toshiro-kun's mother had died some years earlier.

He looked tired. He didn't look like the kind of person who would end up with his son being kidnapped--- that sort of target was usually more affluent, more likely able to pay a ransom. So there had to be another reason for Toshiro-kun's disappearance than money-----

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*Blackmail? That's usually the next most common reason; revenge comes next in line. I'd guess blackmail.*

*But what the hell does a missing child and a truckload of coffee have to do with blackmail? Or is there another motive? I mean, coffee?? And how the hell am I going to get out of here without him seeing me?* Conan could scarcely dare to breathe; the boxes were perched around him in a precarious enough manner that one false move would bring them down….. _*God, don't let him succumb to a sudden burst of office-cleaning or anything like that-----*_

Nodomo-san did nothing; he simply sat in his chair, staring straight ahead with the reddened, tight eyes of the habitual drinker. One hand fumbled in his jacket pocket, drawing out a small metal flask. Quickly, guiltily, he twisted the cap to one side and took a swig, and Conan's nose caught the scent of cheaply-distilled sweet potato whisky. _*Souju; thought so. According to your records you've had a pretty good work history over the last few years. What's changed that, Nodomo? Your missing son? I don't think so; your office shows signs of being like this for a while. You haven't turned your calendar for two months, you've obviously been keeping the room locked or it would've at least been vacuumed, and if I'm not mistaken you've got one hell of a nervous twitch going on right now under your left eye. That looks pretty well developed, too. And look at your hands; you bite your nails down to the quick, your fingers are shaking--- something's been going on that you can't handle and it's come to a head. What--*_

The Recess bell chose that moment to ring, and Conan nearly jumped out of his skin. Likewise Nodomo-san, who jolted backwards in his chair. The flask thudded to the ground, spilling the meager remains of its contents all over the carpet.

Breathing hard, the thin man grabbed at his flask, brushing ineffectually at the splatters of souju on his pants-legs; he capped the container and pocketed it, then rubbed at his eyes hard before slumping back in his chair. Conan tried to restart his heart without moving.

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*Well, so much for class; Teacher's gonna be upset. Hope Ran doesn't blow a gasket when I don't show back up---*

His heart nearly stopped _again_ when the phone on Nodomo-san's desk rang. But the older man seized the recorder like a damned soul reaching for his only hope of heaven. He swallowed hard, clutching the receiver tightly. "N-Nodomo here."

Conan/Shinichi _listened._ _*Dammit--- I can't make out the words on the other end---*_

"I'm here--- I said I would be….. Where is he?" The young detective froze at those words. Nodomo-san's face was white, shiny with a sudden sweat.

A scratching of sound on the other end.

"I did it--- everything you said--- I've been doing what you told me! _God damn you, I want my son back!!!_ What more do you---" He was breathing hard now, the words coming out broken-edged and brittle. The caller on the other end took their time in replying. Then:

"How much more? I can't--- somebody's going to find out, and then we're--- No. _No---_ give me back my *boy,* dammit! I'll do _whatever_ you want, just give him back--- _give him back to me---"_

Terror in his face, in his eyes, in the way he gripped the phone with shaking hands; terror in his words, filling the room with its stink and overwhelming the roar of coffee and alcohol. Terror and guilt.

A long pause then, full of the distant crackle of unknown speech. Nodomo's entire body was shaking by now, trembling finely in an agony of uncertainty. The fingers of one hand fumbled with the edge of the desk, gripping it until it seemed that the skin would split and the bones show through. At last:

"Sunset….. I- I'll be there….. _I can't win,_ can I? I should've never agreed to do this in the first place….. Oh, I'll do it. What choice do I have? You know I won't go to the police--- I'd end up rotting in jail right beside you. Damn you--- Please, please, just tell me he's _all right-----_" 

The silence following the _click_ on the other end of the line was ear-shattering. _"Damn you…"_ whispered Nodomo-san, cradling the phone in his hands as if afraid that it would go off. 

Conan swallowed hard.

For a long, long moment the older man sat there, one hand still gripping the receiver, the other fumbling blindly across the desk for his glasses. Without seeming to be aware of what he was doing Nodomo rolled the sidepiece between finger and thumb, his agitation evident in the way he fidgeted with the frame and in his dazed, unfocussed stare---

__

*Oh God. He's still wearing his glasses. Those are **MINE**.*

Conan wondered if a seven-year-old could have a heart attack.

It was only for a few minutes that Nodomo-san sat there, toying unseeingly with the boy's glasses--- but they lasted forever and ever, those minutes. Finally he leaned forward, dropping the frames to lie forgotten to one side of the desk; he rested his head on his arms for a few moments, and the young detective thought that he saw his shoulders shake with weeping. 

At last he sat back, wiping at his eyes. As he slowly rose and moved towards the door, it seemed that he was carrying more years on his face than he had brought in with him. The door shut behind his back with a double _click,_ and Conan remembered how to breathe.

__

*He didn't notice. He didn't notice they were mine. He didn't notice at all.* Slowly, carefully, the boy eased out of his hiding place.

__

*Well, THAT was informative. I'll give him a couple of minutes to get away from his door, head out, drop Hei-san's keys back by, and get back to class. Maybe I can say I was in the bathroom or something. But first, I think I need to STOP PANICKING before I become the first prematurely gray grade-schooler in Japan.*

*Deep breaths. Deep, deep breaths. Open the door--- no-one around? Good. Now, down the hall before anybody sees---- remember, Kudo, you're just a harmless little boy on his way back from the bathroom, nothing else; don't scream if anybody sees you---*

He rounded the corner at a near-trot--- and ran _right_ into the Janitor's cart. **"AAAAAAGH!!"**

Hei-san flailed his arms on the other side of the cart, trying not to fall over in shock. "What?!? _What?!?"_ The faded eyes were wide with alarm.

Panting, Conan hung onto one of the cart's handles, fanning at his face. "N-nothing, nothing--- I, I, I just didn't know you were there----" He slumped back against the wall in relief. Twenty feet or so away, an alarmed teacher's face stuck out through a door; seeing no problem, whoever-it-was shrugged and disappeared back into their classroom.

The boy fumbled in his pocket. "Hei-san--- here---" He held out the keys. The Janitor took them back gravely, the faintest hint of a smile crossing his impassive face. "Thanks for hanging onto them, kid. You heading back to class now?" Hei-san jerked one thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of Conan's classroom; the boy nodded. "Good. You look like you saw a ghost. Better get moving."

__

*No, no ghosts. I don't believe in ghosts. Just kidnappers and blackmailers. And murderers, of course.*

Heart still drumming beneath his ribs, Conan slipped cautiously through the halls back towards his classroom; he'd have to tell Teacher that he had _really, really_ needed to go to the bathroom, he supposed….. He was just about to slip out the last door and down the steps towards the playground when a scent caught his attention: bleach, and something else underneath... something bitter….. Oh; the stain on the wall next to _Storage-3B._ _*Right--- Hei-san was scrubbing it the other day. Weird, it almost looks like a---*_

His fingers came away darkened, and he stared at the color. _*It DOES almost look like it's----- Hm. That's not good. That's not good at all. And why does it look so fresh?*_

Carefully he glanced from side to side; no-one was watching. A moment's work with his pocketknife produced a few flakes of heavily-stained paint, which he wrapped gently in a scrap of paper from a nearby wastecan and pocketed.

__

*I'm not… quite sure… what to make of this; guess I can ask Agasa-san to take a look at it later. In the meantime, I'd better hightail it to class before Ran spontaneously combusts.*

*************************************************************************

Standing just inside a sheltering doorway, Hei-san the Janitor watched as the boy broke into a run across the playground. Slanting beams of light striped the thin man's expressionless face bright and dark; as the footfalls died away he smiled slowly, then glanced slightly up as a dove fluttered down from the eaves overhead to land on his shoulder. The bird sidled over to nibble peacefully on his hair, and he stroked its snowy breast-feathers with one careful finger before shooing it gently away and returning to his work.

*************************************************************************

Lunch; the cafeteria was perhaps a little _calmer_ today (meaning, of course, that Teacher only had spend half her own lunch-time corralling children and sending the little dears back to the table). Conan stole a sideways look at Rin, who sat between himself and Ayumi and who seemed to be looking slightly desperate at this point. Ayumi-chan was still in full spate:

"--- and Hokuto-chan over there has a pet mouse, it's _cuuuute!_, she brought it to class one day and it got loose and we had to catch it and Genta chased it under Teacher's desk and made her scream--- and Ken-kun at the end of the table, he's from America, maybe you know him Rin-kun?--- and Naoko over there is new too, she just came here last month from Nerima--- and that's Seishirou at the end of the table and Subaru-kun and Fuuma and Kamui, they fight a lot--- and that's Omi, we call him 'Neko-chan' to tease him, he's _cute, _isn't he? though he's not as cute as Hokuto's mouse; and---"

Rin leaned slightly towards Conan (either to whisper or to fall over, one or the other). "Does she know _everybody?!?_ When I asked her to introduce me around, I didn't expect---!" she hissed, her small face worried. "Will she stop soon?"

The boy tried not to laugh. "Sure; just ask her something _else._ Guess I should've warned you: Ayumi has a very good memory." He stirred his noodles, wincing slightly at a yell from the far end of the table (Subaru-kun had apparently just beaned Seiichirou-kun square in the forehead with a chopstick and retaliations were commencing).

Rin rolled her eyes, then turned to Ayumi, cutting her off mid-sentence: "Ayumi-kun?"

"And that's Aya and that's Nagi-kun and that's--- what?"

The young woman/young girl paused, realizing that she had no idea what to say. "Ummmmmm….. do you know my, my cousin Ran?"

Genta and Mitsuhiko leaned to peer around Ayumi. As the little girl opened her mouth to reply, Genta boomed "Of _ course _we all know her--- she takes care of Conan-kun. But she hasn't been around lately--- did she go somewhere?" The large boy looked a little worried. Behind him the end of the table erupted in wholescale warfare; chopsticks went airborne in all directions.

Rin drew a deep breath. "Y-yeah. She's… gone to America, to help take care of, umm, my new little sister. She… won't be back for a long while." Dark eyes dropped their gaze to the remains of her lunch; the young-woman-turned-young-girl picked at her rice with the point of one chopstick.

Exclamations of dismay broke out from the three kids; Rin looked up in surprise. They were honestly upset! Were they going to miss her _that_ much? Ayumi was nearly in tears, and the two boys looked despondent; Conan sat quiet, a curiously intent look on his face.

Rin hastened to reassure them. "It's okay--- she told me that she'd call once a week to speak to Conan-kun, so you three can talk to her then too. Will that help? She… I know she misses you too." 

They looked relieved. Then, one after the other, each child looked at Conan. "You'll miss her the most, won't you, Conan-kun? She's _always_ been with you since you came here, hasn't she?" offered Ayumi, almost timidly.

He gave the little girl a faint, almost wistful little smile. "I'll miss her, sure… but so long as she's happy where she is, doing what she's doing--- then I can be happy for her too. Just as long as she's sure that's what she wants….." He spoke to Ayumi, but his words were for someone else.

Rin smiled; her eyes were warm. "She is. I think she can learn to be happy there. And someday she'll come back, and you can all see her then, right?" 

Ayumi grinned her infectious grin. "Right! And we can write her letters and draw pictures for her and send them in the mail--- I've never sent stuff to America before--- Mitsuhiko, you have, haven't you?--- and we can tell her about new detective cases and---"

Mitsuhiko cut in at this point, frowning ferociously. "Yeah…. New cases. Hey, Conan-kun--- are you investigating something you haven't told us about? You've been acting _awfully_ sneaky lately."

The boy tried to look innocent, glancing nervously at Rin. "Sneaky? _Me?_ How? I'm never sneaky---"

The owl-eyed silence (well, _relative_ silence) that followed Conan's words was enough to make Teacher's head whip around towards his general direction; she frowned for a moment, wondering at an accompanying burst of laughter that was actually loud enough to momentarily drown out Suriya-chan's attempt to sing the Pokimon theme-song while drinking her milk. Shrugging, she swallowed another antacid tablet and tried to finish her lunch.

__

*I really don't see what's so funny…* thought Conan, crossing his arms and glaring; he could feel a sulk coming on. Mitsuhiko and Genta were leaning on each other and gasping for breath, Rin was wiping her eyes--- even _Ayumi-chan_ was giggling so hard she couldn't speak. At last, still half-laughing, Rin managed to speak: "Oh, you have _got_ to be joking! You've _always_ been the sneakiest person on the planet, ever since we were kids! I mean, do you remember when you---" she paused then, realizing what she was saying…..

The three kids' ears perked up. "He _has??_ Heh heh heh….." Genta grinned, looking eager. "I bet you could tell us all sorts of things about Conan-kun when he was really little, couldn't you, Rin-chan? And maybe if he doesn't tell *us* about what he's been investigating you _should_ tell us something good….. Or maybe _we_ could tell Ran-chan something when we talk to her, like about that time we sneaked out after dark and broke into the library so you could use their computer when the Professor's was broken---" Mitsuhiko punched him in the shoulder, and they both beamed at the young detective. Ayumi shook her head, still giggling; Rin's eyebrows went up and she looked at them all suspiciously.

__

*Blackmail--- why, you little rats!* Conan's mouth dropped open. "Listen," he said hurriedly; "Not now, okay? After school, I promise---"

About then Teacher began the difficult process of rounding up her charges to head back to class; four sets of eyes stared Conan down severely, and Mitsuhiko spoke for them all. "You had _better,_ Conan-kun! We'll be _wait_ing….."

The boy swallowed, then looked to Rin in appeal; she folded her arms and glared at him right along with the other three. "I want to know what you found out _too,_ you know….." The corner of her mouth twitched as she fought off a grin.

Conan sighed and surrendered to the inevitable, trudging back to class with all the eagerness of a convict in a chain-gang. Behind him Mitsuhiko, Ayumi and Genta crowed their success while Rin followed along, smiling to herself.

*************************************************************************

"--- and that guy over there, he sometimes lets us come in and read Shonen Sunday for FREE if we don't make a mess or anything. It's a cool bookstore, ne, Conan-kun?"

The Detective Boys were pointing out the more *_important*_ bits of their city to Rin on the way home.

Mitsuhiko nudged Genta out of the way, intent on having his turn. "And there's a really, really great arcade down there--- my dad says that the guy who runs it is a 'no-good goofball', but I think that's just because he works with his

dad, 'cause it's a _fantastic _arcade!, so I can't see how he could be a---"

It was something of a learning experience for Ran, to see the place that she had grown up in all over again through the eyes and priorities of a child. Conan watched the whole process with a certain half-guilty enjoyment. _*She's taking this so….. well; does having somebody else around to share your secret make it that much easier? Or is it just her? Either way, I'm glad. I think it helps a bit that the kids are going to miss her, too; I never had that, not really. The only one who missed me was Ran.*_

Beside them, Ayumi rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "Are you two _finished_ yet?? If you don't quit talking so much, Conan-kun won't be able to tell us about the mystery he found." Two mouths shut; three pairs of eyes focused intently on the shortest boy of the group, who sighed. Rin smothered a laugh behind her hand.

"Ummm. Thanks, Ayumi-kun….. Okay; it's like this. But you three have to promise not to do anything without telling me--- this isn't a regular murder case, or a missing cat, or-- or anything like that……"

As they walked, the young detective laid out the facts as neatly and simply as possible for his compatriots; Rin listened closely, a rather surprised half-frown on her face as the boy systematically ticked off the points on his fingers.....

__

First: Nodomo Toshiro was missing; he was apparently hiding or being hidden some place from which he could escape for short periods of time, but seemed unwilling to stay away due to fear of a "bad man getting him." (Rin kept silent at that, her eyes somewhat troubled; she had her own ideas regarding Toshiro-kun, ones that she preferred not to think too hard about.)

Mitsuhiko looked worried--- Toshiro-kun had been his friend, after all; it was different when a crime happened to a friend. He stayed uncharacteristically quiet during most of the rest of the conversation.

__

Second: His father had _something_ to do with something illegal--- the overheard phone conversation made that fairly clear. Therefore, their sempai's disappearance was probably due to blackmail. (Conan spent a few extra minutes explaining 'blackmail', with particular emphasis on smarmy little _schoolkids_ who were willing to _rat on their classmates_ about the perfectly harmless usage of a library computer after closing hours in order to _get their way_.)

__

Third: Chances were good that Nodomo-san's illegal activities had something to do with coffee--- lots of coffee. It had occurred to the boy that boxes of coffee would make an excellent vehicle for smuggling things in from out of the country; the company's logo _had_ read 'International', after all. But--- why _coffee, _of all things?

Mitsuhiko blinked at him. "Maybe Bad Guys drink more coffee than Good Guys?"

Conan opened his mouth to make a scathing remark, then reconsidered and frowned thoughtfully. "I… don't think so, though it would explain a lot….." With a jerk he yanked his own wandering attention back to the subject and continued.

"So--- this means we have several targets to keep an eye on: Nodomo-san himself, his home and his office. We can't do much during school, but we _can_ watch to see where he goes when he leaves--- and today I overheard him say that he had to be somewhere at sundown." He cocked an expectant eye at his troops. "You remember how we tracked that guy a few months ago, the one on the motorcycle?"

Three young faces began to grin. Rin looked from one to the other, curious; it was Genta who answered her, his round countenance excited. "We were sort of scattered around, and we talked on our badge-radios--- when one of us saw the motorcycle go by, they told the others which way it went. Then Conan chased him down….. It was kind of fun, except Conan-kun got all the exciting parts. No fair!" He glared momentarily at the smaller boy, who shrugged.

Rin looked a bit skeptical. "'Conan chased him down?' On what?"

Three voices chorused: "His skateboard!" Conan had the grace to look embarrassed as Rin turned to him, one eyebrow raised. "It's--- well, Professor Agasa sort of fixed it up for me. I'll show you later, I promise…" She looked at him sideways, just a little dubious; he grinned, laughter sparkling in his eyes. "Do you remember that time you rode in my mom's car with me in New York? It's a little like that….." Rin's eyes widened as she recalled a terrifyingly fast screech around a curve with both of them hanging out the window, using their weight to balance the car at Shinichi's mother's rather nonchalant request. "Oh _no….."_

"Trust me." He grinned wickedly.

Genta was still talking. "It's really, really fast-- you'll see. Sure wish Agasa-san would make _me_ one---" He sulked slightly, and Mitsuhiko sighed with envy. Visions of Conan/Shinichi darting and dodging through traffic were obviously passing before Rin's eyes from the look of consternation there; she stared at him and started to say something--- then closed her mouth abruptly. "What's wrong, Rin-kun?" asked Ayumi in concern. "You look like you swallowed a bug."

"Umm, nothing…. So now what?" Conan paused to tie his shoelaces; the other three sat down on a bench while Rin looked down at his crouched form, hands on hips.

"Now we meet near his house. He lives near Kentou Park--- why don't we meet there at five o'clock, by the swings?" He finished knotting the laces and looked up. With his glasses sliding down his nose and his hair in his eyes, Rin thought he looked absurdly young.

__

*Absurdly cute, too.* She crossed her arms, watching as he stood and dusted off his hands.

Three voices chorused their various affirmatives, and the small group divided up for the rest of the walk home. Side by side, Conan and Rin continued down the sidewalk; their shadows stretched long and thin before them in the afternoon sunlight. Glancing at the adults passing on either side, Rin muttered softly, "'Trust you', hmm? _I_ remember that ride with your mom--- I thought I was going to have a heart attack when you grabbed me and leaned out of the window….."

Conan chuckled.

Their tennishoes were nearly silent on the pavement as they walked. Rin watched as a handful of leaves fled across their shadows, chased by the wind. "You know," she continued under her breath, "for a minute there I almost started to talk to you like--- well, like I was 'Ran-neechan' and you were little Conan-kun again; I had to stop myself."

He shot her a sideways look. "When?"

"When you were talking about the skateboard. I knew you rode one, of course, and I knew that the Professor had done _something_ to it, but….. Is it really that fast?" Her soft voice was half-alarmed, half-eager.

"Pretty fast; it's powered by solar cells. I keep telling Agasa he needs to market it, but somehow he's never quite gotten around to it. I needed something I could use to travel on--- these damn short little legs just aren't _fast_ enough." His voice had softened, changed timbre now that Rin-- Ran--- was the only one paying attention; the tones were longer, lower, his words more precise. "It's funny--- when I was *really* a kid, I would've done almost anything for a toy like this one. Guess I finally hit the big time….." The boy actually laughed, and Ran felt her own lips curve in answer.

"Good; you can show me how it works on the way to the park this evening." Her hand slipped shyly into his; Conan glanced down in surprise, then laced his own fingers gently with Ran's. 

A passing middle-aged couple smiled indulgently down at the small pair walking hand-in-hand; their own hands slipped together in response, and they glanced at each other with the familiarity of love as the four passed each other in the street. Each couple walked on their way towards their own destination, content; the shadows stretching before and after might have been the same shadow, one set no taller than the other.

*************************************************************************

"Dad? Mom?" Quiet; even the everyday chatter of the television was silent. Tentatively Ran poked her head around the corner of her father's doorway, noticing that her mother had apparently managed to shovel the worst of the debris into some semblance of order. _*Nobody in here...*_

"Ran? Here's a note---" Conan waved a piece of paper at her; he had been raiding the refrigerator and had found the note taped on the door. "They've gone out for _something_--- your dad has the worst handwriting---" The young girl scowled at the piece of paper held in front of her nose. "Mmm; I could _swear_ it says something about a computer..."

"It _doooo-_ooes!" Sonoko's head popped through the open doorway, making them both jump. "They've headed out to pick one out.... Hiya, Short Stuff! Hello.... Rin-kun..." She giggled, leaning over to tap Ran on the top of the head lightly with one forefinger. "I just can't get _used_ to seeing you like this--- you're so, so, ummm….."

Her friend raised an eyebrow. "Would 'little' be the word you're looking for?" Sonoko grinned. "Well....." She reached across again to tweak the child's nose; Ran swatted at the offending hand, laughing somewhat ruefully. "Tell me about it. Did you say--- they've gone to _pick out a computer??_ My dad can't even type! What on *earth* is he going to do with a computer?!?"

Sonoko-chan tossed them both a somewhat smug smile. "Well, it seems that _somebody_ here volunteered their services as your dad's *assistant*... and he decided that a case database and internet linkup sounded like a good idea."

Both small figures stopped what they were doing and _STARED._ "My DAD decided this?" said Ran slowly…..

The blonde giggled. "Well--- *actually* your _mom_ came up with the idea, and I helped convince him. It wasn't too hard--- he said something about somebody 'earning their keep', started laughing, and really caved in pretty quickly after that."

Conan crossed his arms and scowled; _*This does NOT bode well.....*_

Sonoko smirked down at him. "What's the matter, Chibi-chan? Cat got your tongue? …Sure hope your typing skills are up to date!" She leaned back against the table, hands bracing her weight against the top of a chair.

The boy shook his head, glowering up at her from beneath his brows. "Sonoko-kun..... if you keep calling me 'Chibi-chan', we're going to have words."

She beamed down at him. "I can finally see what Ran sees in you, Shinichi-kun--- you're so _cute_ when you're mad….." Ran smothered a snicker behind her hand, then turned to look inquiringly at the boy. "An 'assistant'? How about making that _two_ assistants? It'll make me feel a little better about forcing my parents to pay for another decade's child-raising costs."

Conan hopped up onto the couch. "Sounds good to me; that ought to make your dad happy, too. I use the Professor's computer a lot--- I should be able to set up a database pretty easily; we can ask him about software when we stop by this evening. Hope Oji-san gets a good one; your mom has one at her office, doesn't she?"

Ran slid up onto the couch beside him. "Mmm-hmm. Don't worry, she won't let him buy a lemon." She tucked up her feet to sit indian-style beside him while Sonoko lounged in Mouri-san's battered overstuffed chair, hands behind her head. The blonde young woman blew out a long breath. "Whew! Ran, I don't really remember what it was like going to grade school, but you sure missed a monster of a Chem test today… it almost makes me wish **_I_** could shrink down into a cute little Sonoko-chan. It'd be kinda fun, wouldn't it? I mean, if it was _temporary,_ that is---" Ran looked amused in a resigned sort of way, and the two friends spent a little while discussing school and classmates. 

Trying to ignore the horrifying mental image of a chibified Sonoko, Shinichi/Conan watched as a slightly wistful-looking Ran asked after her former sempai; Sonoko promised faithfully to deliver notes to several, and Ran slipped out of the room for a bit to write them.

For a time there was only a slightly awkward silence in the living room; Suzuki Sonoko eyed the young boy/young man who sat staring after Ran, a thoughtful look on his face. His eyes had softened, and there was a faint, crooked smile curving his lips; in that moment he looked very little like the child she had known for a year. The blonde considered for a moment, then cleared her throat.

"You really _do_ care for her, don't you?" she said abruptly, discarding any attempts at tact. Conan's small body started slightly at her words, but it was Shinichi who looked at her from behind his dark blue eyes. "Yeah… I really do….. not that it's any of your *business*, you know…" he muttered, slightly embarrassed.

Shinichi expected Sonoko to break out into a gleeful chorus of _'Oooo, that's so romantic!'_ or some such; he was therefore somewhat surprised at the serious way she stared him down. "Good." She drew a deep breath. "If you _didn't,_ well--- I'm not sure what I'd do to you, but I think I could think of _something….."_ He shifted nervously against the cushions; that had an ominous ring to it. Sonoko's _'somethings'_ were usually dire in the extreme. "Well, you don't have to worry."

The blonde young woman smiled at him in a satisfied sort of way. "Soooooo..... you're both together again; wanna tell me a little about your _intentions_ towards Ran? Are you going to ask her to marry you? If you *don't,* her dad'll probably bury you in an unmarked grave somewhere, you know....." Her voice trailed off as she took in Shinichi's outraged, red-faced glare. "Oh, don't tell me you didn't expect _somebody_ to ask you about this! What, didn't her parents make things pretty clear? I can't see Eri-san just letting you off the hook like that---"

Shinichi shook off his shock long enough to retort, "She didn't! I mean, they didn't--- uh, well, they---"

Sonoko clucked at him. "So they _did_ talk to you about marrying her! And since you're still alive, I guess you agreed, ne?" An expression of utter bliss spread across her face; she clasped her hands before her. _"Ran's gonna get married!! _...Of course, it won't happen for a decade or so, will it? Unless Ai-chan comes up with a cure or something, that is. Coooool! I'm gonna be a _bridesmaid!!!_ Well, in a few years, anyway....."

Scarlet-faced, Shinichi sputtered.

Sonoko raised one eyebrow, brushing her hair back. "What's wrong, Chibi-chan? I thought you _loved_ her and all that---"

The boy waved agitated arms above his head. "I do, I do! But--- Sonoko-kun, has anybody ever talked to you about _tact? _Or _manners? _Or _minding your own business,_ for that matter?? Or did your parents just hand you over by the scruff of the neck to be raised by their housecats?"

She waved that away airily. "Ran's my best friend; this IS my business. So *watch* yourself, Shinichi-kun; I'll be watching you too." 

Sonoko grinned in the face of his discomfort as Ran came around the doorway, a sheaf of hastily-scribbled notes in her hands. The small girl paused, eyeing her two companions suspiciously. "Now, what have YOU two been talking about, I wonder?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" "Right! What he said!" The innocence beaming from the two faces could have powered half of Japan through a two-day electrical outage. Ran sighed and shook her head. _ "..... Right."_

__

*...Maybe I'm better off not knowing, just this once.....*

*************************************************************************

"Ready?"

The two transformed teenagers were slightly down the street from the Mouri residence, standing in a side alley. _Perching,_ actually; they both balanced carefully on Conan's skateboard. He grinned over his shoulder at the girl, who tightened her grip comfortably around his waist. "Does it _really_ go that fast?" Ran sounded a little apprehensive; she almost wished Sonoko hadn't had to go so soon--- a little moral support would've helped to bolster her courage.

Conan chuckled. "Hang on and you'll see. Don't worry; it's just like that time in my Mom's car--- it's only scary at first!" And he pressed the power button with his foot.

__

*Vhrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee------* A wave of small debris blew from underneath the skateboard as the tiny turbins engaged; Conan crouched, adjusting his stance to allow for Ran's added weight and ballast as the wheels began to turn.....

"YEEEEEEEEEP!!!" They came screeching out of the alleyway onto a mercifully-clear sidewalk, arcing in a wide, curb-edged curve that sent them shooting across the concrete at a fast clip. A portly businessman yelped and leaped out of their way--- they passed him with a trailing shout of "Gomeeeeen....." Ran clutched the small, strong body in front of her with a white-knuckled grip, hanging on for dear life; Conan's whoop of laughter rang in her ears as they tore off in the direction of Professor Agasa's.

*************************************************************************

The professor frowned, one hand smoothing his moustache. "Lock picking?" His round eyes gleamed at his two guests through his glasses. "What a coincidence that you should ask; it just so happens that I've been working on just such a project lately....." Shooing Conan and Ran before him like chickens, the scientist ushered them into a small workroom to one side of the main lab.

The young detective glanced uneasily up at the clock; they had barely a half-an-hour before their meeting with the Terrible Trio at the park. _*Better not be late--- God only knows what those three'll get up to if we don't show. I think Mitsuhiko's a little upset about all this, since Toshiro's a friend of his.*_

The professor rummaged around on one of his more crowded work-benches, eventually pulling out a small, oblong box about the size of a pack of cigarettes. A press of a thumb on one end slid a small metal tube out, which he inserted into the key-slot of a solitary doorknob-setup which lay on the bench. There was a tiny, rising whine..... "Observe an application of sonics in action! The tube acts as a tiny, high-frequencey emitter--- the multiple super-and-subsonic tones vibrate the tumblers in the lock, making them follow the path of least resistance--- and voila! The lock _opens-----"_

The lock _exploded._ Pieces ricocheted in all directions, bouncing off the walls, the ceiling, the floor-----

Silence filled the lab, along with rising wisps of smoke and falling scraps of ceiling-tiles. Two wide-eyed children and one disgruntled Pioneer of Science rose from behind the overturned workbench. "Is it safe now? Can we come out?"

Ran hushed him absently, blowing a strand of hair back out of one eye. "Oh, be quiet, Shinichi-kun; look, it's not even on fire anymore. Well, professor? What happened?" The portly man grumbled and reached for the remains of his device, hissing and pulling back as his fingers were scorched. "Eiyipe! Must've miscalculated the frequencies..... ah well; back to the drawing board.....ow….. Er, Shinichi? Would you be interested in an old-fashioned set of lockpicks and an instruction manual? I have them around here somewhere....." Agasa-san lurched off in search of the promised items, antiseptic salve and a box of Band-Aids.

Picking tile-fragments from their hair, the two wandered somewhat unsteadily back into the main lab; Ran picked up a radio-badge from a table, pinning it carefully to the front of her blouse. An engraved pendant on a chain caught her attention, and she ran her fingertips gently across the kanji character on the front; the horoscope character for _Dog_ gleamed up at her. "It looks like the professor's made me a few little toys; I wonder what _this_ does? And if it's for me, why is it the Year of the Dog? You and I were both born in the Year of the Rat---"

Across the room, Shinichi finished wiping the dust from his glasses; he looked at her, a slightly pained expression on his face. "Think about it….."

"Oh, right. 1984 versus 1994….. Well, I never did like rats; I'd rather be a dog anyway."

"Mrmph." The boy slid his glasses back up his nose. "A pendent, huh? I wonder if it's like my watch?"

Ran flipped it over curiously; it was no more than an inch long but oddly thick, with a small bump on the back and a tiny hole at the bottom edge. A thin glass shield covered the engraved kanji, attaching at the top loop with a near-invisible catch. "Let's see….. if I press _this, _the glass flips up--- oh, look at that! Little tiny cross-hairs! And if I press the bump--- hmn; nothing's happening. Wait, the sides squeeze in---"

"Uhh, Ran---"

"So if I squeeze the sides _first_, and _then_ press the bump on the back---"

"--- Ran, _wait_---!!"

__

*thwipp!!* **"AACK!"**

"….. Ooops….. Shinichi? Shinichi??….."

*************************************************************************

Fifteen minutes or so later, a slightly groggy Conan-kun arrived at the park, clinging to the waist of a very apologetic Rin-kun. The skateboard slowed to a halt; she had piloted it at _much_ slower speeds than those of their initial trip, but the look in her eyes promised further practice sessions in the future--- and perhaps a few large bribes of chocolate-chip cookies for the professor.

"I _said_ I was sorry….."

Conan sulked, rubbing at the tiny pinprick beneath his shirt. This was the first time he had undergone one of his own sleeping darts; he had decided that he didn't like it _one bit. *No wonder Mouri-san's such a grouch after his 'sleeping detective' episodes--- these things pack quite a wallop. Good thing they wear off so quickly.*_ He privately resolved to stay out of Ran's range anytime he saw her fingering her new 'toy.'

__

*Especially when she's mad at me; wouldn't want to become 'the Amazing Sleeping Edogawa', now, would I?*

The kids were already at the park; three swings sang their creaking songs into the evening air, breaking off into random jangles as their occupants abandoned them for more interesting pursuits. Genta snorted as he eyed Conan's flushed face and sleepy eyes. "You're late--- what'd you do, take a nap?"

"Guilty as charged," sighed the boy, earning a mystified look. Ran-- Rin--- hid her smile behind her hand. "Never mind. Are you lot ready? Then here's what we'll do….."

Battle stations were assigned, and the small contingent of detectives scattered to their various locations. As the only one with a vehicle, Conan positioned himself at the nearest traffic light; a block away, Rin waved to him from where she perched in a doorway beside a fruit stand, obviously just one more child waiting for her mother to finish shopping. 

Behind Conan's eyes, behind the lenses, Shinichi smiled to himself; even from a distance, he would have known it was her-- Ran--- There was something about how her long hair fell, or the way she held herself poised, or maybe it was the way she turned her head to watch a bicyclist go by---

Never mind. He would always know.

A crackle of static made him start slightly; that was Mitsuhiko, doing his usual _"Testing, testing, ichi, ni, san, shi---"_ It was getting late, and with any luck Nodomo-san should be heading out pretty soon.

__

"***crackle, crackle*** Conan-kun--- there he goes…" Bingo! That was Ayumi, sitting quietly on a bench less than fifty feet from their quarry's door. _"**szzt*** He's walking, not driving--- he's carrying a bucket and a fishing pole--- ***zzzt, crackle***"_

The boy's eyebrows went up. _*Fishing? And on foot? There's only one or two places within walking distance around here that allow public fishing--- and we just came from one of them---*_

Another burst of static cut in as both boys tried to talk at the same time. Conan swore under his breath, earning a startled and disapproving glance from a pedestrian who had just crossed with the 'WALK' signal. "Little heathens…" muttered the man, trudging past.

__

"***sputter, crackle, zzzzzt!!***---'s going now… I think he's coming towards you, Rin-kun---" And he'd be in sight of Conan after that… He _was_ heading for Kentou Park. From his vantage point the boy could see the girl's small form vanish into her doorway; good, she was taking precautions. Come to think of it, he had better take a few of his own… A nearby newstand provided cover, and the young detective wedged his small form comfortably between an empty packing crate and a batch of used wooden pallets.

__

"***crzzzzz***crackle, crack!*** There he is--- he looks nervous--- he's heading your way now, Conan-kun---" That was Rin. The boy drew himself even further back into his niche.

His first sight of their quarry was the butt of a fishing pole, held downwards and at an angle that allowed it to be propped across Nodomo-san's shoulder. _*Stupid--- it's a sectional pole--- why doesn't he take it apart? Much easier to carry it that way. He must not fish much.*_ The brief glimpse that he caught of the man's profile told him very little, save that he did _not_ look like someone planning a relaxed bit of sunset fishing in a park.

In fact.....

..... he had looked terrified. Desperate.

Like a man who had lost the only thing of value in his life, and who would do _anything_ to get it back..... anything at all.....

Conan felt himself grow still, felt his jaw clench in determination and growing anger. _*Don't worry, Toshiro-kun; we'll find you soon.*_ He brought his badge close to his lips. "Rin-kun, Genta, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi--- he's heading for the park. Follow, but… _slowly."_

Tucking his skateboard under one arm, Kudo Shinichi set off in careful pursuit.

*************************************************************************

__

(Five hours or so later, he lay on his back and stared into the dark, remembering…..)

It hadn't exactly been the _hardest_ bit of shadowing that he had ever done; the man's lack of paranoia was almost refreshing. Nodomo-san had quite simply been so focused on the task at hand that very, very little else was worth paying attention to… and that included a small hoard of pint-sized detectives. Especially ones who had watched his actions while hanging upside down from the monkey-bars.

__

(It had all been so quick; in and out, and more pieces had been added to the puzzle…..)

"He's…. fishing? But I didn't see him bait a hook or attach a lure or anything---" Her hair dangling below, Rin had turned a puzzled, inverted face to Conan's own. The boy's eyes were fixed on Nodomo-san's movements; moments before the man had sat down on the shore of the park's small pond, arranging a number of items from the bucket on the ground beside him.

__

*Must be a popular spot for fish….. that's exactly where Mitsuhiko and Genta said they saw somebody fishing the other day. Come to think of it, they said something about the fisherman leaving something in a PVC pipe, too; we took a look at it, there were all those scratches along the inside of the pipe….. Was that really only a couple of days ago? Seems more like weeks.*

Beside him the other children stared, unusually quiet; that wasn't good. Quiet was _different,_ quiet stood out--- but at about that time Mitsuhiko's urge to climb to the top of the monkey-bars apparently overpowered his good sense, and he stepped on Genta's hand as he swung up. With a yelp, the larger boy clambered after him; Conan relaxed. _*Good; background cover. Couldn't have asked for better.*_

Ayumi flipped over to drop onto the ground. "He's not catching any fish… but he brought an awful lot of stuff with him, didn't he? I wonder why?" She frowned, toeing the dust with one tennishoe. "And he keeps _fidgeting_ with it….."

She was right. Very little attention was being paid to fishing, though the pole's line dangled listlessly in the water; instead, Nodomo-san's hands were furtively moving the items around beside him on the ground, shuffling them, scooting one past another--- 

---but *now* he seemed to be particular about how the pole sat, shifting it, seating it first forward, then back---

__

*…WAIT a second….. The pipe; he's not moving equipment around--- he's putting something inside the pipe! It's too dark to see whatever it is, but he's using the butt of the pole to shove it backwards in through the opening! Something long and not too thick….. GOT you, Nodomo-san! Now: what have we got, actually? Must be some sort of a drop-off. I wonder who's going to be the pickup man?*

They didn't have to wait very long to find out. Barely ten minutes after he had arrived, the supply clerk was packing his fishing equipment up--- and _this_ time he broke the pole down into its sections, strapping them together for carrying. He slowly rose to his feet, brushing off his clothes and stowing the rod in the bucket he was carrying (a bucket which, Conan would bet, was a lot _lighter_ now); as he climbed the low slope of the bank Nodomo-san's steps faltered, and he looked behind him…..

….. at _another_ fisherman, who was even now calmly walking across towards the pond from the far side of the park.

For one long, long second, the clerk hesitated; Conan heard Ran draw in a sharp breath beside him at the look of longing and agony that drew deep creases down Nodomo-san's face. He paused, half-turned; the other man kept walking: short, choppy steps that bounced the bucket _he_ carried…..

The second ended; Nodomo-san faltered and turned away, hurrying up the bank and across the park towards his home as if pursued by all the Furies.

__

(Conan closed his eyes, remembering the pain in the man's face as he blindly passed by…..)

__

*Crunch*Crunch*Crunch*….. The shorter, stockier man's footsteps seemed oddly loud on the late-summer grass, as if he were stomping the world down into submission with his fisherman's boots. Unlike Nodomo-san, he took the time to glare at the children playing on the park's equipment (by now Genta and Mitsuhiko were clambering across the top of the Jungle Gym, risking life and limb with an impromptu demonstration of How Gravity Works (i.e., they were falling off a lot)). The last rays of light from the setting sun dyed everything a faintly crimson hue, and Conan felt his throat catch as he recognized the sour-faced fisherman who was now taking the place that Nodomo-san had so recently held….

"…the restaurant… he's the bad-tempered man from the other table---" whispered Rin, still hanging upside down beside him. The boy nodded a grim, inverted nod. Beside them both Ayumi wrinkled her brow. "He looks nasty," she offered, her voice subdued.

As if he had heard her, the man's head swung around menacingly; she squeaked, drawing closer to Conan. The boy flipped over, dropping beside the child and casually stepping in front of her quaking form. "C'mon, Ayumi-chan, Rin-kun--- let's go play on the swings!" he said in his brightest "little boy" voice; silently Rin pulled herself up to drop off the bars onto the ground beside him, and the two of them moved quickly away on either side of Ayumi.

Behind them the man stared narrow-eyed after their retreating forms; paranoia produced a sheen of sweat across his brow, and his fists tightened around his fishing rod. "Go play in traffic, you little brats….." he whispered at their retreating backs.

__

(His eyes had been so full of venom; what kind of thought produced that sort of-- of wrongness? The boy shivered, half-asleep, and he pulled the covers tighter around him in the dark…..)

Conan could feel Ayumi quivering slightly against his shoulder; on her other side, Rin watched with concern. "Are you okay, Ayumi-chan?" It was Ran rather than Rin who reached across to hug her young friend's shoulders, the maternal instincts of her older self showing through; she brushed the dark hair back from the child's forehead and Ayumi nodded. "I'm okay; he's just a scary man. I know who he is, too--- I wasn't sure at first, but---"

As gently as possible, Conan broke in. "Who _is_ he, Ayumi-kun?"

Genta and Mitsuhiko came pounding up beside them at this moment, out of breath and red-faced. "That's the GROUCH (gasp, gasp) we saw out here (pant, gasp) last week--- he was fishing then (pant, pant, pant) too… You know him, Ayumi-kun?" Genta fanned at his round face with one oversized hand, while Mitsuhiko stared after the fisherman with furrowed brows.

The man glanced their way one more time; his face darkened, and he began gathering up his equipment to leave.

Ayumi blinked. "I remember him from school--- he teaches science and stuff like that to the big kids in the South hall; you remember, Mitsuhiko-kun? He wouldn't let you look at those yucky things he keeps in his lab---"

The freckled boy's eyes opened wide. "Riiiiiight!! He's got all these jars with dead animals in 'em, 'specimen jars' Teyumi-kun said they were called, and there's supposed to be one with a two-headed kitten in it and I just wanted to see it and he was _really mean_ about it and told me to go back to the playground and leave him alone--- I didn't recognize him either, Ayumi-kun! That was _smart---"_

Conan rounded on them both then, glaring. "For crying out loud, never mind that! _Who is he??"_ The snap in his voice made them falter and blink at him, and Rin placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

Looking a little hurt, Ayumi stuck out her lower lip. "You didn't need to _yell_ at me, Conan-kun….. I think his name is Ojiwa-san, and he teaches at our school." Beside her Mitsuhiko nodded enthusiastically. Genta looked puzzled, but fell in with the small group as they began walking towards the park's main gate.

__

*Ojiwa-san….. so that's your name.*

The man had left on foot as well; a stop on the way home at the telephone booth outside the park produced only one 'Ojiwa' within the directory that lived within walking distance: Ojiwa Ryu, instructor.

__

*And if we checked the pipe right now, it'd be empty; no doubt about that. So Nodomo-san brings something in, hides it in the pipe and leaves; then Ojiwa-sensei sits down to fish, picks it up, and leaves. But… he was heading north of the park, and he lives to the west; I wonder where he was going next? Should we follow him?*

No….. It was _way_ past time to head home; much later and he'd have three sets of worried parents tearing burning a hole in the Mouri's telephone lines, wondering where their kids were. It was likely the pickup item was being moved to another drop-off point; that was interesting, but it didn't do Toshiro-kun much good. Still…..

What _was_ it? Laundered money? No, not bulky enough. Drugs? Possibly….. What was it that Toshiro-kun had said early on?

__

(The boy turned over restlessly, soft echoes of words haunting him…..'I found out… about the bad stuff. Daddy said not to look, but I did… Don't let him get you…..')

*'Don't let him get you'….. Who 'got' you, Toshiro-kun? Was it Ojiwa-san? I keep thinking about that bloody flashlight…..*

The walk home was relatively quiet. The kids discussed the case in their own ways (Mitsuhiko was sure it had something to do with the specimen jars--- it was a beautifully gruesome notion, and he was unwilling to let go of it) while Rin and Conan held their piece. Unthinking, Rin had slid one hand into Conan's for comfort, until the giggling behind them made her turn a rather adult-like glare on the two schoolboys. Genta and Mitsuhiko gulped, then quieted down save for the occasional snicker.

It was dark by now, so rather than splitting up the kids walked each other home. Ayumi's apartment was the last stop; as she turned towards the entrance, she looked back at Conan. Her young eyes were clouded with worry and the smallest touch of fear. "He's not a very nice man, is he, Conan-kun?"

His own eyes locked on hers, and beside him he could feel Rin shiver slightly.

"No….. No, Ayumi-kun; I don't think he's a very nice man at all."

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

__

(and now the boy was sinking deeper; sleep closed over his head like still, dark waters, drawing him down and down and down into dreams…..)

….. "Shinichi? Hey, Shinichi?"

He looked around, bewildered. The amusement park was as deserted as always, but it had never looked so… cold before, so abandoned. It felt….. odd.

Where was his other self?

He felt the shadow loom over him before he saw who cast it, felt the young man that was his other half come up behind him. "Right here----- hey; does the park look *different* to you tonight? Or is it just me?" Shinichi moved up to sit beside him on a bench next to the Arcade; the lights blinked on and off in complicated patterns that seemed ever-so-slightly more subdued than usual.

"No…" The boy shivered; "…it's not just you. Something's wrong; something's different." He shifted uneasily. "It almost feels like we're not alone here….. but I don't think Ran's coming; it--- doesn't feel like that….."

Thunder growled angrily overhead; the wind was rising, pushing the shadows before it but leaving larger, darker ones in their place. Both selves raised their faces to the skies as a patter of rain began. "It's never rained here before for us, has it?" The boy sounded a little shaken. The older youth frowned, staring upwards silently.

Large and heavy, the first drops splashed on upturned glass lenses; Conan gasped, jerking back. Simultaneously Shinichi licked at his lips and choked, wiping his mouth hurriedly. In one instinctive move they huddled together beneath the Arcade's overhang, staring upwards in horror while droplets left dark marks on their clothing and their surroundings.

"The rain….."

"The rain's blood. It's blood. The sky is raining blood-----"

*************************************************************************

On his narrow bed, a little boy twisted in tormented dreams; one word escaped his lips, just barely audible in the darkened room: _"…..blood….."_

And not too far away, a stained piece of hallway plaster began to bleed once more…..

**************************************************************************************************

End of Chapter Five

__

Okay, I creeped myself out a bit there. That's what comes of finishing things after midnight while ferrets bite your socks and you're on a vanilla-icecream-high and you've been reading Becky Tailweaver's DC stuff (which, by the way, I **HIGHLY** recommend! Read! Read!) and Yami No Matsuei manga and who knows what else over the last hour….. Things are getting darker; I think the next chapter may cause some of you to want to bash ME over the head with something, but it has to be done. Sorry….. Hope you liked this one; I'll have Chapter Six ('Cold Comfort') up as soon as it's finished!………… Ysabet (and this time the chapter ran to more than 13,000 words. Sigh. Oh well…..)


	6. Cold Comfort

**Second Wind******

**By Ysabet**

**_Chapter Six:  Cold Comfort_**

_The moments before a gun is fired are, relatively speaking, very quiet.  There's the careful aim, the silent sighting down the barrel of the shooter's eye--- there's the trigger, the terminus of potential--- and, in the chamber, there's the bullet.  Things are especially quiet for the bullet... but not nearly as quiet as they are for the target.  For the target, that split-second of peace may be the last thing it knows before the darkness and violence of sudden death._

_And make no mistake:  it's violent.  Gunpowder, really, is the killer within the weapon: the momentary explosion of shock and chaos that makes the inevitable happen and brings the target down.  Without impetus, the bullet does not kill._

_Violence and shock, and the target falls.  But before the fateful moment, all is calm....._

_..... for a little while.  A very, very little while._

**************************************************************

_Red rain, flooding the world with scarlet, filling every sense with the knowledge of spilled blood and untimely death….._

Conan had woken up groggy and disoriented, a bitter taste in his mouth and vivid, gory dream-memories in his mind; but behind the ache in his head lodged a feeling of _lateness, something that he knew from case after case in the past: the clock ticking, the hourglass emptying, __time running out.  As he slid out of bed and dropped to the floor below with a thump, the faintest trace of a scowl flickered across his face._

Ojiwa Ryu.....  They had a name now, and a face to match with that name..... one more piece for the puzzle; sooner or later there'd be enough pieces, and the picture would be clear enough to see.  

The boy's expression wilted a little more as he groped with his toes for his house-slippers; his dream the night before--- now, what the hell had all *that* been about?  Bloody rain.....

Whose blood had it been?

Feeling ever so slightly ill, Conan shook his head hard and shrugged his robe on; it was bad enough that he had to go schizophrenic in his sleep, for crying out loud..... now was he supposed to start looking for oracular meanings in his dreams?  He'd be as superstitious as Hattori's girl Kazuha-chan next.

_*Bloody rain.....*  The young detective scratched his rumpled hair and shook the image away; he yawned once, then trudged down the hall towards breakfast._

**************************************************************

Sometimes you simply had to stop and admire the view.  It was times like this, Conan thought grinning, that _definitely deserved to be caught on film for posterity.  A pity he didn't have a camera handy._

The new computer (purchased and brought home the night before by Mouri Kogoro with the dubious expression of someone who hasn't managed to move beyond a pocket calculator as yet) had been left sitting in all its unopened, uninstalled glory when the boy had headed for bed.  But now the boxes were open and the manuals pulled from their shrinkwraps; a small girl sat cross-legged on the office floor in a litter of styrofoam packing, carboard and plastic, reading the installation instructions softly aloud.

"...when installing DotComPro, all protocols will need to be set to match the main drive's configuration; to check this, please insert Disk One of Four into your CD-ROM drive (E:/) and double-click on the icon that appears....."  Her clear, lilting little-girl voice contrasted oddly with the technicalese of her reading material.  Frowning in concentration, Ran hitched up her nightgown at the neck and flipped through the booklet towards the back.  "Index, index....  OH!"  An expression of amused chagrin filled her small face as she caught sight of the boy who leaned against the doorjamb, grinning.

He addressed the air.  "'Oh _noooo, Shinichi, it's too late at night to put the computer together... let's wait 'til __tomorrow, Shinichi.'  You're busted, Ran-kun."_

Ran blushed.  "Well, it _is tomorrow....."  She surveyed the nest of packing material that she sat in.  "I guess I just couldn't wait.  I know, I know, there's not enough time to install it this morning, but.....  I thought maybe I could sneak one of the manuals to school with me?"_

He shook his head at her, a little wistfulness creeping into his grin.  "If somebody finds you lugging something like that around, what would you tell them?"  The boy bit back a laugh as she peered into one of the boxes, her small form dwarfed by the equipment.  "Ran-kun the Techno Geek.  Never thought I'd see the day.....  You always did like the computer classes at school, though, didn't you?"

She stuck her tongue out at him, looking every inch the impudent little girl.  "I am _not a Geek!  I'm just--- good with computers.  You are too, or you used to be---"_

Conan sauntered over to the mess of boxes, peering at the contents. "Oh, you just want to surf on the Internet...." he teased.  "All those chatrooms, all those hentai fangirl bishounin websites---"

Sputtering, Ran flung a piece of styrofoam packing at him; he laughed and fended it off.  The resulting small war of packing-peanut volleys and flying bubble-wrap was just beginning to warm up when Eri-san stuck her head around the corner from the kitchen; the two young figures froze guiltily, caught acting like the children they appeared to be.

The older woman surveyed the damage; Styrofoam shapes decorated most of the office's surfaces, and its occupants were faring no better.  Ran's dark hair was festooned with bits of white packing material; she had crouched half-behind one of the boxes and was trying to look innocent.  From his vantage point around the edge of the new monitor, Conan could see that Eri was _not buying it this time._

Hands on hips, she stared severely at her young-old daughter and her companion.  "I'd tell you both to 'act your age', but I'm afraid that's what you're doing….. sort of.  Breakfast is on the table--- better get this cleaned up before it gets cold."  With a final frown at the two miscreants, Eri turned and marched back into the kitchen.

The two guilty parties eyed each other.  "Truce?" suggested Conan, flicking a styrofoam peanut from out of his pajama collar.  Ran smiled back at him, dark eyes gleaming with mischief.  "Truce."  They began cleaning up the mess.

As he fished a last strip of bubble-wrap from behind a cabinet, the boy reflected that breakfast, at least, was likely to be a less risky meal that most others; it was hard to screw up rice, tea and the other simple things that made it up.  Or so he hoped….. with Eri-san, you never knew.  He stuffed the packing material back into a box; Ran was half under the desk, scooping up stray peanuts, and Conan paused to watch her for a moment.  Her long, dark hair fell softly about her face as she scooted back out, hands full; when her eyes met his she suddenly blushed like a rose.

He couldn't help but smile.  "A yen for your thoughts?"

Still blushing, she smiled at him as he reached out one hand to help her up from the floor.  "Just that….. ever since I, well, I _changed….. I keep finding myself, um, __playing like a little kid.  Did--- you do that a lot, right afterwards?"_

Conan chuckled and shook his head, leaning over to pick up one final chuck of packing.  "Nope; matter of fact, I had a few problems relearning how to play at first--- I know I was just seventeen, and you'd think that I hadn't had time to forget how yet--- but it _is something you have to relearn.  You're doing a lot better at it than I was….."_

She grinned, all small-girl cuteness with Ran's beautiful eyes.  "Maybe because I have somebody my own age to play with, hmmm?"  And she tossed the last bit of Styrofoam into a box.  Side by side, they headed towards the dining room to face Eri-san's rather peculiar version of breakfast.

**************************************************************

They had left slightly early to allow for a stop at Professor Agasa's, and Conan was beginning to wonder if the Black Organization's little capsule had begun to affect his hearing as well as his height.  He stared at Ran in consternation.  "You're going to do _WHAT?!?"_

"Teach Ayumi-kun karate.  Why not?"  said the girl calmly.  "We were talking about what sort of things we like to do yesterday on the playground, and I told her that I take--- that I used to take--- karate.  She wants to learn, and it'll be a good way for me to get used to _this."  She indicated her small form with a nod of her chin.  Ran's eyes twinkled a little as she took in his appalled expression.  "What's wrong, Conan-kun?  Are you worried?  I wouldn't be…..  After all, she __is your best friend."_

He shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around the image of a rather Jacki-Channish Ayumi-kun.  "It's not me I'm worried about--- it's Genta and Mitsuhiko.  And don't be too surprised if _they want lessons too."_

She blenched slightly, then looked resigned.  "….ummmmm….. well, it'll be good practice, I suppose….."

They turned in through the professor's gate then; the front door was unlocked as usual.  "Professor?"  Conan sniffed the air.  "Chemicals….. he'll be in the back."

The sound of running water and faint, muttered swearing led them to a sink just outside the small chem-lab; Agasa leaned over the basin, dabbing frantically at something on the front of his white lab coat.  As they approached, the reek grew stronger, and Ran's eyes widened as she realized that what the professor was concerned about was _not stains, but….. holes?  With little wisps of __smoke coming from them?_

At their inquisitive gazes, he grunted, still dabbing.  "A new cleaning compound; it didn't work.  Too strong."   The portly man sighed.  "Ai-kun usually handles the laundry, but---- erm…..."  His words trailed off.

_*Ai.  I wonder what you're doing right now--- and why should I care?  Funny, I don't feel as mad at you as I did.  What the hell, what's done is done….. though I still plan on having a little talk with you about ethics when you show up…..*_

The holes looked to be widening, threads shriveling away.  Conan cleared his throat a little nervously, pulling a small paper envelope out of one pocket.  "Um, professor?  I've got a sample here for testing--- do you still have some of that Luminol left?  Oh-and Ran, did you bring that stuff you scraped off of Mitsuhiko's flashlight?  Might as well take care of them both at the same time….."  The girl silently handed over a folded tissue.

Agasa-san left off his dabbing to take the two items carefully, his eyebrows rising.  "You're wanting me to test these for blood presence?  Shinichi, what've you run into now…?"  A faint scent of burning was beginning to surround the scientist.

The young detective shrugged, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with one finger and eying the enlarging holes with some alarm.  "It may be nothing, but I'd rather find out for sure."  The sample he had taken from the wall at school had weighed heavily in his pocket ever since; it was much better, he reflected somewhat unhappily, to know for _certain if it was blood rather than to blindly hope that it wasn't._

No matter what kind of conclusions that certainty might inevitably lead towards…..  

_(and for a moment, he was back in his dream, huddling away horrified as the sky wept sanguine tears down on both of him)_

The moment passed.  Conan shivered, aware of Ran's eyes on his.  Agasa was already turning away with an absorbed expression; with a troubled glance at each other, the two headed on towards school.

**************************************************************

_*You know,* thought Conan from his perch on the back of a playground bench, __*I think we might be in trouble.*_

The first All-Gradeschooler All-Ayumi Karate Class was in progress--- and Ayumi-kun was having a _good time._

The child's attention was fixed on her new friend's movements, her young face set in a frown of concentration. Twice now Ran, or rather _Rin-kun, had had to explain to concerned teachers that they were "playing karate" rather than trying to dislocate each other's wrists.  The first lesson had included simple holds and hold-breaks, and Ayumi had shown a distinct predilection to latch on and *not* let go--- her coordination was pretty much that of a normal seven-year-old and needed work, but…_

_*… she sure seems to be enjoying herself…..  I wonder if this was such a good idea?*_

Genta and Mitsuhiko leaned back on the bench in front of him; they looked worried, their eyes following their sempai's movements and growing rounder and rounder with each passing moment.  Genta turned an alarmed face towards the smaller boy.  "Conan-kun--- can Rin-kun _really do karate stuff?  I mean, can she break boards and throw kicks and---"_

"--- and jump through the air and run up walls and punch out bad guys and---" Mitsuhiko broke in excitedly.

Conan surveyed them both with a jaundiced eye.  "You've both been playing _Tomb Raider again, haven't you?  Or did you finally manage to sneak a look at your parents' copy of 'The Matrix', Genta-kun?"  The two boys flashed quick, guilty looks at each other, then up at the smaller boy.  "How did __you know??" they chorused._

Conan rolled his eyes and sighed.  Out on the playground, Ayumi staggered backwards laughing as Rin gently turned her arm sideways at an awkward angle, showing how to break a hold with thumb and forefinger.  Eyes bright and determined, she attempted to follow the other girl's instructions; eventually she got it right, and it was Rin's turn to pull backwards.  Already they had a ring of interested onlookers, and Mitsuhiko gulped audibly, muttering "We're going to have to be lots _nicer to Ayumi-kun after this….."_

The smaller boy behind him snorted in agreement.  "Listen guys….. There's something I need to ask you to do.  Remember what we saw in the park last night?"  Both nodded.  Genta's eyes lit up.  "Are we gonna work on detective stuff?  Great!  What is it?"

Conan laid out his plan, keeping it simple.  Genta and Mitsuhiko would head by the park each evening, watching for another dropoff--- if they saw _anything, they were absolutely __not to follow; their job was to simply observe.  Or, as Mitsuhiko put it, "stake out the joint."  Mitsuhiko had watched __way too many American gangster movies._

Ayumi and Rin would be keeping an eye on Nodomo-san, watching him as he left school and hovering in the general area of his home until sundown; there was a small patch of grass and trees (not a park, not really--- too small; more a glorified scrap of public landscaping with a bench) less than a block from his apartment building that they could use.  Maybe Rin could even continue Ayumi's lessons there.

And Conan?  He had his own work to do.

**************************************************************

_***sssssssszzzt!***cracklecracklesnap!***'glug-glug-glug.... clunk!'***_

Conan winced as the tiny radio hidden in the arm of his glasses relayed the miniscule sound of (if he had it right, which he was pretty sure he had, after four repetitions) someone drinking from a bottle and tossing it into the trash.  Nodomo-san had apparently taken to imbibing in his office out of something rather larger than a pocket flask.

It was a pity; the man was going downhill fast and would crash and burn pretty soon--- the young detective would bet money on it.  _*Better find Toshiro-kun pretty damn quick, for more reasons than one; his dad's destroying himself.*_

_(red rain, and the clock ticking….. inside his mind, Shinichi shivered.)_

At least the bug under his keyboard was working, though that'd be the last time he ever hid one _there--- he hadn't considered how loud keystrokes could be when listened to closely.  So far it had produced little useful information save for more than he wanted to know about Nodomo-san's little drinking problem, but occasionally the man would mutter things aloud.  Conan still had hopes there; it had only been a day, after all._

_(but the clock was ticking…..)_

He shifted uneasily, earning an inquiring look from Teacher, who paused in her discussion of vocabulary words for Friday's test; "Is everything all right, Conan-kun?"  Sighing inwardly he schooled his face to nice, bright 'Conan'-ness and improvised.  "Hai, I'm fine--- I was just thinking about lunch."  Beside him Rin shot him an odd look, one eyebrow cocked slightly, and Teacher chuckled.   

Lunchtime _was strongly on his mind, though not because of food…..  When at last the bell rang and Teacher began lining up her charges, he tugged on her sleeve with an embarrassed expression.  With one hand hooked in Ken-kun's collar and the other snagging Sumaru-kun from racing ahead, she spared a glance at him and sighed--- she had seen __that expression enough times before from little boys to need no further elaboration.  "Bathroom, right?  If it was anybody else….. but go on, Conan-kun; hurry, now!  Come straight to the lunchroom when you're done, alright?"  At about this moment a rubber-band bounced off her ear, and she spun around to hunt down the culprit with a not-quite-muffled-enough swearword that raised her status remarkably in her students' eyes.  Conan ducked out while he could, flashing an apologetic grimace at Rin.  She snorted in annoyance, but allowed her small self to be carried along by the tide of gradeschoolers._

Down the hall at a fast clip, then, and around a corner; out the door, quickly, before he could be stopped by any teacher who might wonder why such a young student might be heading over to the upper-grades' area.  His school-scuffs made little sound on the worn tiles as he darted across a bit of seldom-used courtyard between halls; two more corners, a moment's ducking into a doorway to avoid a hall monitor, and he was there.

Ojiwa-sensei's office.  The door was shut--- locked?  Maybe.  Probably.  And this time he didn't have the keys to help him out.  Conan stood on his tiptoes, trying vainly to peer through the frosted glass of the door's window and cursing his short legs.

_*Crap.  I'll just have to come back later, then.  But at least I can do one thing that I came here to do-----*  From a pocket he fished an envelope containing a carefully-folded strip of thin plastic: common sandwich-wrap, clingy and smooth.  A moment's work had it stretched tightly across the rounded door-knob's surface and secured with a small rubber-band, fairly unnoticable unless you were looking for it; it would pick up a fine set of prints from Ojiwa-sensei the next time he opened the door._

That done, the boy backed away a little and sighed, looking longingly at the lock.  _*I have got to practice with those lockpicks the professor gave me--- this is one time they'd really come in handy!*  Conan grimaced in disgust.  __*Oh well…*  He turned to go-----_

----- and nearly plowed smack into a stocky, suited figure that rounded the nearest corner with an angry stride, pulling up short as the boy staggered back.

Ojiwa Ryu was no more prepossessing up close than he had seemed at the park the previous evening; his creased, rather pudgy face reddened angrily at the sight of the smaller boy's proximity to his office.  Even in his shock, Conan/Shinichi's mind noted the undereye-twitch that seemed to be affecting the teacher, as well as the thin sheen that made his bellicose face shiny with sweat.  "What do _you want?" he barked, the words short and choppy._

Conan's mouth opened and shut, gaping for a moment as he floundered for a reply.  _*Of all people to show up right now--- and why has he got such an attitude?  Who peed in his soup?*  "I, um, I, ahhh---"  Mind racing, he seized upon something Mitsuhiko had mentioned earlier.  "M-my friend said that you have these, uhhm, __jars with all sorts of weird th-things in them, and I wanted to ask you if I could see-----"  He raised pleading eyes to the teacher's face, stepping back a bit._

"No."  The stocky man gave him an ugly look, fumbling in his pocket for his keys.

Conan returned it with as much wide-eyed confusion as possible.  "But… why _not, Sensei?  I just want to---"_

He was cut off with a curt gesture.  "Go away.  I don't deal with *little* kids---"  He was fumbling with his key now, inserting it into the keyhole below the knob; "--- and I don't care what you want to see.  They're _science specimens, not freak show exhibits."  He jerked his door open and glared down at the boy.  "I've got better things to do with my time than play babysitter.  And why aren't you in your class, anyway?  __Go away."  Without waiting for an answer, Ojiwa-sensei pushed past the doorjamb and pulled his office door closed behind him with a rude __click._

For a moment the small boy stood staring and open-mouthed at the door, to all appearances a subdued, crestfallen child.  Then, with a glance up and down the empty hall, he darted forward to peel the now-fingerprinted plastic wrap off of the doorknob, slipping it carefully back into its envelope in his pocket.  His expression was, in that moment, smug and not at all child-like.  _*Well, THAT was a bit of serendipity--- I got my prints and a closer look at Ojiwa-sensei.  And I don't think he recognized me, either.*_

As he slipped down the hall towards the lunchroom, Conan gave his pocket a satisfied pat.  _*Well, Ojiwan-san, let's just see what kind of history you've got; a little checking through some online records tonight might prove… enlightening.*_

**************************************************************

In his painfully neat, carefully-arranged office, Ojiwa Ryu sat in his swivel-chair, rigidly upright.  Only the twitch under one eye gave any indication of movement--- that, and the tightening clench of his hands on the chair's arms.  _"…kids…" he whispered, a droplet of sweat rolling down his cheek to seep under the line of his collar.  His eyes glittered feverishly.  "…watching me, __all the time, the little bastards….. they are, I __know they are….."  The joints of the chair's arm creaked in protest under his grip._

His eyes strayed sideways towards a small drawer to one side of his desk; motions jerky, he opened it and slid a hand to the very back, pulling out a tiny plastic envelope.  As he measured out a miniscule portion of the white powder contained inside onto an old glass microscope slide and began to roll a scrap of paper into a tube, his breath hissed between his teeth.  "…little bastards….. Little _bastard--- you're watching me?  Well, __two can play that game-----"_

_Unheard, unnoticed, the softest breath of a sob whispered through the office….._

**************************************************************

Lunch is a very important thing to a growing boy (even an ersatz one), and Conan's mind was firmly fixed on food by the time he reached the lunchroom.  Catching his teacher's eye, he entered the line at the back of his class and received his tray with a sigh of relief.  At the table, however, 'relief' turned to….. consternation?  Trepidation?  

_*….. Ran?  What ARE you doing??*_

The little girl was involved in what could only be termed _holding court.  She sat with her tray at the table, talking animatedly, while kids within earshot leaned over and craned their ears to catch what she was saying.  Bemusedly Conan sat down beside her, listening with growing apprehension:_

"…and if you start learning karate _now, when you're still young, it'll be easier to be good at it when you get older.  My teacher over at---I mean, back in America--- started teaching me when I was only four years old."  She took a bite; Conan noticed the eager looks being traded by quite a few of his classmates and groaned internally.  "And…" continued Rin happily, "if you get good at it you can compete in matches with people from all over the world--- that's a lot of fun---"_

One of the girls from her left broke in excitedly.  "Rin-kun, can you _really break a board with your hand?"  At the end of the table, Teacher was looking distinctly worried.  Frowning a little, Rin shrugged.  "I __used to be able to…..umm, that is, I think so--- but don't any of you go trying it!  You'll break your hands instead of the boards---"_

The other girl scowled.  "You sound just like a _grown-up--- "  Snickers ran the length of the noisy table; Rin shrugged again, waving a chopstick through the air.  "Yes, but if you __do break your hand then you can't learn any karate, can you?.....  Never mind….."  Her voice trailed off as Conan's half-amused-half-horrified stare registered.  __"Whoops…" she whispered under her breath, taking another bite with a rueful sideways glance.  He shook his head and took a swallow of his drink._

Around them conversations were beginning to break up into their usual lunchtime sets, although there was a distinct 'martial arts' theme to be heard:

"---just like Jackie Chan!  And I'm GONNA learn to---"

"---think my daddy would find me a teacher?  I want to see if I---"

"---did you see how they did that in Final Fury?  My onisan's got a copy and---"

"---saw Rin-kun with Ayumi-chan out on the playground and I bet _I could---"_

Teacher was looking _very worried by now._

Poking at a bit of broccoli with his chopsticks, Conan glanced sideways at Rin and fought back a grin; from her appalled expression, it was apparent that she had just realized what kind of a force she had put in motion.  In the past year he had found that giving a group of gradeschoolers an attractive idea was like dislodging a small rock at the top of a steep hill--- all it took was the right one, and you had a landslide.

He took a bite.  "I wouldn't worry _too much--- so you have a dozen or so noisy little kids pestering you half to death to teach them how to kick their little brothers through a wall for the rest of grade school--- so what?  You can handle it--- I hope....."  The grin snuck out, and he chuckled at her dismayed expression.  God, she looked so __cute-----_

Deciding that a change of subject was probably a good idea (Rin's face was rather despondent by now), Conan spent the next few minutes outlining the plan of attack for the next few days.  She frowned a little.  "Stake-outs, hmmm?  The kids have done this before, right?"  At his nod she smiled just a bit ruefully.  

"You know, I'm only now beginning to understand how much went on right underneath my nose; you're right:  Adults _don't notice what kids do, do they?  Even me..... and I always thought that I paid attention to what you did and what you said, even when I didn't think you were---"  She glanced around at their sempai, but the other kids were either intent on lunch or on their own conversations.  "--- well, __you know... your old self.  I guess I didn't watch hard enough."  A little wistfulness had entered her voice; Rin stirred her rice aimlessly, dark eyes introspective.  The expression sat strangely on her innocent face._

Conan shook his head.  "You paid a lot more attention than most people would have.  And--- well, you _know how many times I had to fast-talk my way out of tight spots when I was absolutely sure I had blown my cover….."  He eyed her, wondering if the memories would make her angry._

Rin didn't _look angry; instead she took a swallow of her drink, smiling to herself a little smugly now.  "You'd be surprised at just how long I suspected the truth, really; you always came up with some good reason why it couldn't be true, but... I guess I was pretty convinced already by the time you told me.  I just didn't let myself __think about it."_

"Really…..?  Damn; and I was so *careful* all the time.  Should've gone ahead and told you right off the bat."  He frowned down at his tray, slightly disgruntled.

"Right."  He could hear the grin in her voice; funny how some things just didn't change, even though said voice was a little higher now in timbre.  Ran had always worn her emotions in her voice.

It was a little later that the matter of voices came up again, when the trays had been put away and after he had just been teased into an argument over soccer by Genta and Mitsuhiko.  Very softly Rin murmured to him, "Do you know… that you have three voices, Conan-kun?"

They were in a double line, walking back to their classroom, but _that statement made him halt momentarily; Conan stumbled slightly to catch up to his place as he was bumped into from behind by a complaining classmate.  "Huh?  __Three voices?"  Rin laughed softly at his expression._

"Three.  One for when you talk to people who only know you as Conan, all little-boy and cute and all--- one for when you talk to me, or my mom or dad, or anybody else that knows about you--- and another for when you talk to kids.  It's funny, but when you talk to Genta or somebody like that you *almost* talk like your normal self…. like _Shinichi, not Conan."_

As they slid into their seats, he blinked and thought about this.  "I guess I never noticed.  One thing about the kids that I like is that they really don't care _what I sound like--- I just sound like __me.  It makes things easier."  The class quieted; Rin darted a quick smile at him, then turned her attention back to Teacher and the less-than-enthralling afternoon lessons, which included the use of crayons._

**************************************************************

And so it went for the next two days.

Genta and Mitsuhiko spent time in the park watching for more 'fishing incidents', Ayumi and Rin watched Nodomo-san's home for signs of trouble, and Conan kept an eye on Ojiwa-sensei's apartment for basically _anything.  During the day, the young detective focused his attention on the bug in the supply clerk's office--- not that he had much hope regarding that lead; Nodomo-san had taken to spending more and more time in his office, but he either mumbled incoherently or kept silent._

Time was running out; every moment that passed made the chances for finding Toshiro-kun grow less and less..... and every now and then Conan/Shinichi would grow silent, thinking of a dream of blood red rain and the ticking of a clock.  And each time, he would wonder once again:  Whose blood had it been?

Nodomo-san had yet to file a missing person's report with the police; his son was still listed as 'visiting relatives.'

And Conan found himself occasionally wondering about Ai--- how she was doing, was she alright.  Agasa-san made the occasional despondent comment; it was obvious that he missed the young scientist and felt guilty for doing so.

The new computer system was up and running with a full DSL hookup installed.  Shinichi had spent an instructive evening huddled over the keyboard and mouse with Ran, showing her the ins and outs of investigation via Internet; she had been highly amused to find him using her father's name as a 'lever' when requesting a trace or a search from the various official offices.  'Mouri Kogoro The Sleeping Detective' was well-known enough that his queries and questionings were generally honored (out of curiosity, if nothing else--- and they enhanced his reputation no end).

The search regarding Ojiwa's prints came back with no past history of criminal incident.  The kids saw nothing incriminating--- no park dropoffs, no terrified hostages, nothing.

And the clock kept ticking…..

**************************************************************

_'Mamaaaaaaaa….. just killed a man……_

_Put a gun against his head/Pulled the trigger, now he's dead……_

_Mamaaaaaaaa….. Life had JUST begun_

_And now I've gone and thrown it all awayyyyyyy…….'_

God help them all, Sonoko had discovered American 80's music.

Conan sprawled across his small bed, glasses off, scowling as he attempted to think over the blare of English lyrics sung by groups of people with improbable names:  Queen, Men Without Hats, They Might Be Giants, Triumph, Jethro Tull, The Proclaimers…..  He winced as Freddy Mercury hit a particularly high note, wailing something that sounded remarkably like _'Beelzebub has a devil put aside for meeee, for meeee, for MEEEEEEE-----'_

_*I think Sonoko's been permanently assigned to my case.  WHY did she decide to bring her whole '80's collection of CDs over tonight?*  Mouri-san and his wife had hastily vacated the premises for a trip to Eri's office; she had some trending-and-charting software there that she planned on installing on the new system (or so she said, waving a fast farewell as she scooted out the door).  Despite the beginnings of a headache, Conan felt his face soften a little into a wry smile--- the reconciliation had hit a few major bumps during the previous evening, when Oji-san's curiosity regarding the Internet had gotten the better of him… and he had discovered just __how many hentai sites were out there.  Eri had nearly knocked him into orbit._

But they were trying, Conan had to give them that; and it was actually quite touching to see Mouri's rather clumsy attempts to court his own wife.  The man was apparently genuinely working at a few changes of his own behavior (with the occasional slip, such as the 'hentai sites' incident).  And Eri-san….. well, her temper was a volatile as ever, but she seemed to be reining it in with perhaps a little more success.  Maybe they had both decided that it was time to let the past remain the past.

…..and maybe seeing their daughter become a child all over again had had something to do with it.  Or perhaps it was the fact that she had done so for the sake of her _own heart?_

Conan sighed.  Another bit of music wrapped itself around his head, softer now:  

_'Who wants to live forever_

_Who wants to live forever?_

_Who dares to love forever?'  _

That was Mercury-san again, but these words were gentler, more poignant.  Conan blinked, considering.  _*I suppose it could be worse.  I remember last year, when she got on that Madonna kick and played everything she could find at top volume…..  I was still my old self then, and I recall being driven off at least once by too many renditions of "Material Girl."  I know listening to lyrics is supposed to help you understand English, but a guy can only take so much Madonna.*_

He turned his attention back to his 'homework'--- not the basic-beyond-belief worksheets of math and other gradeschooler's excercises, but his 'incident' list for the current case.  It was like staring at a box of puzzle pieces, trying to rearrange them with his mind: that piece went _there, and that one lined up __there, and that one made sense of __that one…..  The feeling of time running out had gotten stronger over the last day or so--- the young detective couldn't say why.  It was faintly reassuring that Nodomo-san hadn't spoken to the police yet; that argued that his son was being held as a bargaining chip against his good behavior and was alive and well… he hoped. _

He could hear the two female voices occasionally over the music; Ran's higher tones carried sweetly against Sonoko's more strident voice (though he had to give the blonde young woman credit: she _could sing) as she laughed at something her friend had said.  Momentary silence as the CDs changed; then another Queen song began, this time (amazingly enough) in Japanese:_
    
    _'Teo toriate konomama iko_
    
    _Aisuruhito yo….._
    
    _Shizukana yoi ni_
    
    _Hikario tomoshi_
    
    _Itoshiki oshieo idaki…..'_

The quiet, almost triumphant voice filtered down the hall, stilling Conan's pencil from where it had begun to scratch its way back across the paper.  For a few long, long minutes the boy forgot what he was doing, lulled by memory and the thought of a beautiful brown-haired young woman whose heart shone from the eyes of a child.  The music sang its message at him in English now:

_'Let's cling together as the years go by_

_O my love, my love….._

_In the quiet of the night_

_Let our candle always burn_

_Let us never lose the lessons we have learned…..'_

He smiled to himself, dark blue eyes open but seeing nothing of the papers before him.  _*I guess….. if we can't find a cure….. if Ai can't help us, we can manage together, can't we?  I did ask Ran to stay with me.  And she did.  Ran came back to me, and I came back to Ran.*_

_*Ai…..  I wonder when you're coming back.  Somehow I'm not as mad at you as I was--- guess I'm accepting the situation better now.  If Ran can live with it, so can I.  And I guess I almost miss you; I never thought I'd be saying that, that's for damn sure.  But I am, and I suppose I hope you're okay.  You haven't had a very easy life, have you?  And you don't even have somebody like Ran to make things better for you the way she does for me.  You lost your sister, but you gave Ran back to me (or me back to Ran).  I guess… in your own way, you tried to help.  I can't really blame you so much for being cold and analytical--- if I had been raised in the same situation, who knows how I would've turned out?*_

_*If I wasn't still a little pissed off at you, I'd feel sorry as hell for you.  Except for when I see Ran missing her old life.  But I can deal with it if she can.*_

It was quiet down the hall; the two girls' voices were, at least momentarily, subdued.  Freddy Mercury sang on, soft and wistful:
    
    _'Hear my song; _
    
    _Still think of me the way you've come to think of me._
    
    _The nights grow long, but dreams live on;_
    
    _Just close your pretty eyes_
    
    _And you can be with me...  Dream on…..'_
    
    _*Ran.*_
    
    They had never talked about the dreams, not really--- the ones where they met up in their tandem selves.  The dreams were simply _there, as much a fact of their situation as their lack of height and the lurking fear of the Dark Organization  (not that he'd thought of __Them much lately, what with disappearing kids and the guilty delight of no longer having to be __alone anymore).  Shinichi chewed on the end of his pencil contemplatively; if, he supposed, this were a normal situation… he would be worried about his sanity.  People didn't usually meet with each other in their dreams, and they __damn sure didn't show up in pairs.  Or as twins.  Or as… whatever the hell they were._
    
    But this wasn't a normal situation.  They had left normal *way* behind, stalled on the side of the road, around the bend and out of sight.  Conan's eyes drifted closed;  the young-man-turned-young-boy remembered back to the moment of impulse that had changed everything for himself and Ran, the moment that had sent him gathering flowers for her windowsill…..
    
    _'Though I'm gone,_
    
    _It's as though I hold the flower that touches you._
    
    _A new life grows--- the blossom knows _
    
    _There's no one else could warm my heart _
    
    _As much as you… Be not gone…..'_
    
    _*Ai…  I guess I'm as much as fault as you are for Ran's change.  If I hadn't told her the truth, none of this would have happened.  But she seems happy--- she really does--- and that's all I need.*_
    
    Deep inside his heart, Shinichi smiled.  Normalicy was _much over-rated.  Ran's voice blended gently with the distant music, and in that moment he could not have said which was which._

**************************************************************

"So you've already gotten into trouble for passing notes in school?"  Sonoko was going through Ran's new clothing, shaking her head in amazement at the smallness of each garment.  "I guess _some_ things never change…"  A wail from her portable CD player seemed to protest the sentiment as it moved to the next Queen song.

"Mmph…" agreed Ran, tugging one of her new jumper-sets over her head.  "I suppose--- Hey!  What do you mean, '_already'?"_  As she smoothed the garment she glared indignantly at her friend.

Sonoko giggled at receiving one of Ran's patented Death Glares from the little girl that faced her down, hands on hips.  "Oh, _you_ remember…..  You and Shinichi were always getting caught talking when you weren't supposed to, passing notes, that sort of thing---  Remember old Washitou-sensei's class?  The old witch used to pin up any notes she caught kids passing on the bulletin board; I swear, half of them had to be from the two of you!"  She pointed at Ran's rapidly-reddening face from where she sprawled on the bed beside the heap of clothes.  "Don't try to deny it--- I have _evidence!"_ she proclaimed dramatically, flinging a small shirt into the air.

Scowling, Ran snagged the flying garment before it could land.  "I remember, I remember--- you snitched all the notes off of the bulletin board at the beginning of Spring Break… and I remember *why*, too; she had just put a note up there from _you,_ Sonoko-kun, rating the three best-looking guys in the class, and you didn't want anybody to see it!………  Don't tell me you still have all those notes….. do you?"

The blonde smirked.  "I never could figure out how to crack the code you and Shinichi started writing in after she started pinning all the notes up--- tell me how to read it and I'll give 'em back!"

The small girl reddened even more, hopping up to sit on the end of the bed with her arms crossed.  "No way!  Figure it out yourself if you're so smart, Sonoko-kun."  Ran scooted back to sit cross-legged against the wall.  She spread her arms, displaying her new outfit.  "So what do you think?"

The young woman regarded her diminutive friend critically, her head to one side.  "Well….. if you wanted to look like a kawaii little gradeschooler, you're doing a great job.  But you need--- I don't know, something _classier,_ more _stylish---_"

Ran shook her head.  "Sononko, I'm supposed to be seven or eight years old; at that age you just don't *care* about looking 'classy' or 'stylish.'  I'll settle for kawaii, thank you.  I mean, I do want to look good and all that---"

"For Conan-kun?" interjected her friend slyly, winking.  Ran ducked her head and smiled a little, her cheeks heating again.  "Ummmm… I guess.  For me, too--- I feel a lot better if I know I look good."  

"Ran…..?"

"Hmmm?"  The little girl was sitting back, a distant look in her eyes as she mentally translated the English lyrics she was hearing into Japanese.  "What?"

Sonoko leaned forward, sprawling on her stomach to prop her chin on her elbows.  She stared intently at the young face before her as if watching for signs and portents.  "What's it like?"

"Huh?  What's _what_ like?"  She was still listening to the music.

"What's it like… to be in love?  I mean, _really_ in love?"

"!!!"  Sputtering a little, Ran jerked her attention back to the conversation.  Sonoko's eyes were curiously solemn; they lacked the usual playfulness and flightiness of her normal attitude, and they were fixed on Ran's.

"Ummm…..  Why do you want to know?"

Sonoko sighed.  "Because you did the most _romantic_ thing I've ever heard of, and you did it all for love.  And I want to know what it feels like….. so that maybe someday I'll recognize it when I feel it too."  She turned her head a little, staring down at the bedspread and tracing the pattern in the threads with one finger.  "I know, I know, I chase guys all the time… and it's starting to get a little old; I sort of wish some of 'em would start chasing _me,_ you know….?  So I thought I'd ask:  What's it feel like to _really_ be in love?"

Ran hesitated, trying to find the right words; her friend sounded unexpectedly earnest, as if some part of her really _needed_ this.  "It's like…..  Well, it hurts, a little, especially at first.  We're always told that we need to grow up strong and self-sufficient, from the time we're little kids; you know, from "You can do that, you're a big girl" when you're small, to "Big Girls Don't Cry" and all that…..  And then suddenly you realize that there's this _person_ that you can't do without--- that for you to be happy, _they_ have to be happy too.  Sounds stupid, doesn't it?  And you want to be with them, even when they make you mad and impatient and annoyed enough to knock them silly--- it doesn't make sense, but….."

"….. but after a while, you start to understand that for some reason, you'd rather be angry and _with them than incredibly happy with somebody _else._" _

She stared down into her lap, turning her hands over and flexing the thin, childish fingers.  "And sometimes you almost resent that, because it puts limitations on your life… but after a while, you either give it up or—or come to terms with what you have to do to keep it."  Ran laughed softly; there was no bitterness in the sound whatsoever, just a sort of gentle amusement.  "I guess I did just that, didn't I?  And it's okay; sometimes you have to lose something in order to win."

Sonoko looked more than a little baffled, and Ran sighed.  "I _said_ that it didn't make sense, didn't I?  …..I guess another way to describe it is to say that it's like there's this rope tying you to someone else; at first the rope's a pain, and you'd rather it wasn't there….. but after a while, you start to realize that by being tied to someone else you're that much more stable, that much less likely to slip and fall; it makes both of you stronger, and you're glad… so glad it makes your heart hurt.  And you'll do _anything to keep the tie strong."_

The blonde stared at her.  "A--- rope.  So where's the romance in all of this?"

Ran chuckled, shaking her head.  "It happens while you're not looking--- if you were looking, it wouldn't be romantic, would it?"

**************************************************************

It was during breakfast on the third morning when the puzzle pieces began clicking together, really; and it all started with a _beep as Eri-san's software finished loading into the new computer system.  _

Craning his head to look past Kogoro Mouri's newspaper, Conan's eyes gleamed behind his glasses at the neat charts and graphs that scrolled onto the screen.  Still munching on a final bite of breakfast (fortunately for them all, Ran had cooked that morning), he slid down from his chair with a thump to slip into the chair in front of the monitor---

--- only to bump into Ran, who was sliding in from the other side.  Startled, he turned his head to stare her eye-to-eye; laughing, the young-woman-turned-small-girl indicated the armless chair with a wave of her hand.  "I think we can both fit."  Conan flushed a little, but scooted up onto the seat to peer at the screen.

Tables of data scrolled past as Ran slid the mouse along the pad; the software package was an ACCESS clone, designed to assimilate and track large amounts of information in an infinitely adaptable matrix.  Conan's small hands flickered across the keyboard, manipulating fields and shuffling code like cards in a pack.  A sharp elbow in his side made him surrender the keyboard to Ran for a moment, and he leaned unconsciously against her shoulder to watch the text flowing past.  A bit of data caught his attention and he frowned, dark blue eyes sharpening.  "Eri-san….. what've you been working on?"

The older woman came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a cloth.  "That?  Just some data assimilation.  That's a set of statistics on drug deaths in the city over the past eighteen months, categorized by cause:  accidental overdose, suicide, impure adjuncts, homicide…..  I've broken them down by city sector and graphed them out per week.  Why?"

Ran slid her hands to one side as Conan's—no, _Shinichi's--  took their place.  His voice had sharpened along with his gaze, and his words were slightly clipped as he spoke above the click of keystrokes.  Graphs paged across the screen, narrowing the focus down somewhat.  "Adjuncts?"_

The lawyer nodded, leaning forward with one hand on the back of the chair.  Behind her own glasses her eyes narrowed and grew hard.  "Adjuncts--- that's a nice, PC name for 'rat poison, used to cut drugs with', or baby powder, or flour, or any of a thousand other impurities.  It makes the product go a little further, you know…"  The last phrase was spoken with a sarcastic bite; Eri's eyes flashed angrily and she shook her head.  "Drug dealers…..  You know, I'm not exactly fond of a lot of the people I meet in my line of work--- murderers, rapists, that sort of person--- but drug dealers have to be the lowest of the low.  Poisoners on a wholescale level--- and they don't even care who they dispense their poison to, so long as they get _their cut."  Her words were bitter; Ran reached an arm back to touch her mother's hand gently, her small face troubled._

Shinichi's eyes were still fixed on the data scrolling past.  The screen-pointer slid up to indicate a sharply rising incline on a graph.  "You've been following a trend here, haven't you?  Adjunct deaths have been rising over the last few months."

Eri-san nodded, and a shadow fell over the keyboard as Mouri took a place at her shoulder.  Hair tousled and jawline scruffy and unshaven as yet, his eyes still showed a measure of sharpness as he focused on the screen.  "This thing can chart that sort of stuff?  Might be useful….."  He rubbed at his chin; the sound of his fingers against his stubble sounded vaguely like someone sanding a table.  "Hrmph; looks like a good assignment for you, boy….. what'd you call it?  'Data assimilation.'  So….. first we decide what kind of criminal we want to track, right?  Then we check their stats--- past records, locations, opportunities, things in the news, that sort of thing--- and then we, what, graph it out, right?"

Three sets of astounded eyes met his, and Mouri-san waved the Sports section of the daily newspaper at them.  "Hey—**_I follow the races, you know--- this isn't much different than picking horses.  And besides, I __was a cop."  He chuckled.  "Well, Kudo?  When you get home from school today, you can get started, __right?  Seems to me I remember somebody offering his assistance--- something about 'earning his keep'….."_**

Shinichi's jaw dropped briefly.  Beside him he felt Ran quiver as she muffled what was probably a snicker.  "Right" she said briskly; "We're going to be working together on it, aren't we, Shinichi?"

Her father eyed their small forms darkly, noting how they sat comfortably shoulder-to-shoulder in the office chair.  "Looks to me like you're working a little _*__too* closely already….."  He directed a distinct __don't-mess-with-my-daughter glare at Shinichi, complete with lowered brows; the young man/young boy hastily slid from his seat.  "School's waiting, boy… Ran.  Better get going."  _

Beside them, Eri-san chuckled.  She riffled her daughter's hair gently, who snorted slightly and eyed her father.  _"You just want to play Mah Jong on the computer for the next few hours--- you're not fooling __anybody" she informed him, her large eyes severe.  Mouri Kogoro attempted an innocent look; it failed miserably, and he backed away to take refuge behind his newspaper and tea._

Conan lingered in front of the terminal for a moment, thinking; _*Drug impurities….. how about a comparison of sectors?  Let's see, should be on one of the workbook pages…..*  His fingers danced across the keypad.  __*Ahh, here we go….. good thing Eri-san tends to label her stuff so neatly….. mmph--- that's quite a rise, and primarily in the southeast sector… interesting.  And mostly during the last three months, too.  Now what could've caused that little upsurge?*_

His jaw tightened, and a rather grim expression came into his eyes; no-one seeing him right then would've mistaken him for anthing like a child.  _*A murder is a murder, whether the victim's been stabbed from behind or poisoned through taking adulterated drugs--- it's still a murder.  So many of them…..  It's easy to look at a graph and just see numbers, isn't it?  Not people, just 'data.'  But these were people, good or bad, and now they're corpses in the morgue.*_

_*So many deaths….. a rain of blood….. a reign of poison.*_

"Conan-kun?  Time to go---"  He spun around; Rin was standing behind him, an inquiring look on her face.  For a moment he felt an odd sense of déjà vu, his mind's eye seeing a taller Ran waiting for him, ready to walk him to the gradeschool gates, _Conan-kun, are you ready?… and behind __that, he could hear her soft voice saying __Shinichi, are you ready to go?  We're going to be late for class---_

"Conan?  Is something wrong?"  Rin stepped closer, absentmindedly reaching up to flick a strand of his untidy bangs from out of his eyes.  He smiled then, letting the moment go.  "No, it's nothing.  Let's go."

As the door closed behind them, the grim statistics shone in their illuminated graphs on the screen, telling truths without explanations.

**************************************************************

Today was Library Day, one of the brighter spots in the gruelingly-boring school routine for Conan.  Rin looked around with interest, and then with dawning dismay.  "It's--- so _small; are we allowed to check out books?"_

He sighed.  "Yeah, but the selection's not much for first or second graders.  But, well… follow me."  As the class dispersed among the brightly-colored tables and bookshelves, he led her to the front desk.  An elderly librarian was in the process of stamping cards, the repetitive _clunk of the stamp muted by the high counter; standing on his tip-toes, Conan peered over it and cleared his throat.  "Ummm, Jini-Obaasan?"_

The thin, rather horse-faced woman looked down the length of her nose at the small figures before her.  "Oh, it's little Conan!  And you've got someone with you?"  Her accent was… odd, at best; strongly American, with a twang and slur of the consonants that sat peculiarly on the ear.  Thinning hair tinted a bright strawberry-blonde curled around her lined face in a careful arrangement; she brushed back a strand and smiled at Rin.  "And who would you be, little one?"

As Conan introduced Rin politely to the librarian, she noticed something odd; while his voice was clearly 'Conan-ish', he wasn't holding back much vocabulary-wise--- he spoke like a precocious child would speak to a respected adult.  "Sooooo…" beamed Jini-Obaasan; "and what could I do for you today, mmm?  More books from your stack to check out?"  She waved an admonishing finger.  "You _know I can't let you take __too many out at once, or it'll get noticed."  She dropped her voice into a hoarse, old-ladyish whisper and leaned over the counter conspiratorially:  "You wouldn't want the Head Librarian to find out, now would you??" and she winked.  Rin drew back, a little alarmed._

Like a good little gradeschooler, Conan shook his head vigorously.  "No, Obaasan--- but my friend would like to look at the older kid's books too--- she's a _very good reader!"  Rin smiled up at the woman.  Without a break in her smiling expression the librarian pointed one skinny arm towards a sign on the wall.  "Well, then, perhaps she might read that to me aloud--- __softly, of course---?"  _

Dutifully Rin peered up at the sign.  In her lilting voice she read:  "All Students Attending the Kyoto Book Tour Are To Check In With Their Assigned Group Leaders For Permission Forms Before Leaving School Premises".  Her voice was clear and precise, the complicated syllables neatly formed; Jini-Obaasan listened with her head tilted slightly to one side, then nodded.  "Excellent.  Go on, then--- Conan, you can show her around.  Not into the magazine room, though—you know those are off-limits."  She pursed her lip-sticked lips into a smile and sat back, pleased.  As the pair slipped past the desk and around the far corner, Conan called out rather casually:  "Jini-Obaasan--- is the computer terminal turned on?  I won't play any games on it, I promise--- I just want to show Rin-kun how to look things up."

Already hard at work stamping cards, the wrinkled woman waved a hand.  "Heavens, little one, _I don't use that thing hardly at all--- how would I know?  Go on, now, before your time in the Library's up."  Obediently they moved past her into the near-deserted upper-student's room.  Rin breathed a sigh of relief--- for a moment there she had been convinced that her reading matter was going to be confined to brightly-colored children's books…_

Conan made a beeline straight for the research terminal in the far corner; he hopped up into the chair and sat there, feet hooked underneath.  Rin quirked one eyebrow at him as she paged through a book from the 'New Arrivals' stand; "Better watch out--- the Head Librarian'll catch you!"

He right-clicked on the mouse.  "Jini-Obaasan _is the Head Librarian."_

Her jaw dropped.  "What?"  Conan glanced sideways at her, grinning a little.  "It's sort of a game she plays--- she likes kids, and she doesn't want to scare them--- we're not the only ones she lets check out the 'big kid's books'.  So she puts on her 'Little Old Library Clerk' act, and all the other librarians play along." 

_"Oh."_  She shook her head, then put her book down and walked over to stand behind him, leaning her arms on the back of the chair.  "What're you doing a search for?"

"Coffee… and drug smuggling."

Rin frowned; "At the same time?  They don't exactly have much to do with each other---"

Fingers still busily typing, he shrugged.  "I know… but I'm running out of ideas.  I told you about the coffee all over the floor in Nodomo-san's office, right?  And we know he's doing _some_ sort of dropoff--- and there's been an upsurge in drug-related deaths by cause of impurities lately---"  Frustrated, the boy ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end.  "Aargh!  There's GOT to be _something_ I can tie them together with---"

Rin rested her chin on the back of the chair; her breath stirred his hair slightly.  "You'll think of it sooner or later; you know you will.  You just need more facts to work with….."

He sighed a very Shinichi-sounding sigh, leaning back so that their heads brushed against one another's.  "I'm trying--- but Toshiro-kun can't be kept as a hostage *forever*, his captor'll get tired of it sooner or later and---"  Conan shook his head, his eyes clouding; he swallowed, and the sound was loud in the quiet room.  "Ran…" he whispered, "…I don't want to be the one who finds that kid's body.  I don't want to fail him that badly."

She was silent for a moment; then, very gently, she put her arms around him from the back of the chair, hugging him.  Rin's small-child arms could only stretch so far, her hands resting gently on his shoulders; but she gave him as much comfort as she could, and he relaxed a little in her embrace.

Then the computer _beeped._

"Urrgh?"  The moment lost, Conan sat upright.  Information was scrolling onto the screen…..  They read it together, small faces serious.  The article that had popped up was from an international news service, and had little to do with their mystery… at least, so it seemed at first glance.  Yet it _was_ a link---

_"'Fifteen AirTour Airlines employees were among those arrested in a predawn FBI sweep at Okinawa International Airport Thursday…"_ he read aloud; _"'FBI officials stated that arrests marked the culmination of a two-year federal investigation, code-named "Ramp Shark", that had tracked an operation in which drugs were shipped into Okinawa on AirTour Airlines planes and then distributed to other parts of Japan, including Tokyo and Kyoto…..'"_  Conan scrolled down the page, his brow furrowed.  "But what about the _coffee---_ yeah, here we go….. _'In seven separate incidents involving AirTour employees, heroin and cocaine were smuggled aboard international flights bound for Japan, said FBI spokesman Takamura Suo.  One incident involved flight attendants discovering twelve pounds of cocaine stored in coffee packages, Takamura said.  Once the planes had landed in Japan, undercover agents discovered, they would be shipped to various locations across the country and distributed from---'"_  He stopped.

"But why _coffee??"_ wondered Rin.  "I mean, there have to be lots of other ways to get them into the country….. and what does this have to do with what's going on here?  That article is---" she frowned at the date; "--- more than two years old!"

Conan sat back slowly, rubbing at his eyes.  "I know, I know; there's probably no connection at all.  But… maybe the _idea's_ the connection--- what is it about coffee that makes it good for smuggling things?  And what was smuggled in the first place?  Something small--- drugs, jewelry?  I doubt it's money being laundered--- the packages were too undersized.  Bills big enough to make that sort of package worthwhile would be too conspicuous."

He stretched and yawned, thin legs dangling from the chair.  _"God,_ I'm getting tired of this one; I really, really don't want to see this… end badly.  But it's got that sort of feel all over it---"

A sound from behind made them both jump; they swung around to see Jini-Obaasan motioning to them.  "Better hurry up, little ones--- your teacher's gathering up the class right now, and you don't want to be _caught_ in here, do you?"  If she had heard any of their admittedly-unchildlike conversation she showed no sign of it, but simply shooed them out of the room like so many chickens.  "Off you go; the older children will be along any minute now….."

Sighing, the two allowed themselves to be swept up with the rest of their classmates.  Waving at Jini-Obaasan as they passed out of the library doors, Conan muttered to Rin beneath his breath: "She's not a bad old lady, is she?  If you find something you want to check out from the senior stacks, she'll hold it under the main desk and let you take out one book at a time; the trick is not to turn them in _too_ quick."  He matched paces with Rin; their footsteps fell softly in unison against the cracked concrete underfoot on the outdoor walkway between the halls.

"She's really something… her accent's kind of unusual….."

Conan chuckled.  "Yeah--- I think she's from some part of America called 'Georgia', if I remem---"

He stopped dead in his tracks._  Directly in front of him and no more than thirty feet away was Toshiro-kun._

The boy stood in the midst of an entire hall-full of moving students; stock-still, he seemed to take no more notice of the children around him than they took of him--- they simply passed him by, and he simply stared past them.

Straight at Conan, who froze.

Toshiro's face….. it was so pale, and his expression was---  Later on, Conan would recall pictures of children in bread lines from after World War II; their pinched, agonized faces were no less desperate than Toshiro's.

Distantly Conan was aware of Rin, tugging at his sleeve and asking him anxiously _Conan?  Conan, what's wrong?_  He could not have answered her for his life's sake--- he could only stand there, transfixed, staring at the boy who pleaded with his eyes for him to do something, _something_….. and the pale lips were moving now, shaping one word, then a second-----

***WHAP!!!***

_*Wha--- Aaargh!!  Who the hell---??*_  Someone had hit him. On the _head-----_

Rin stared him down, defiant and worried.  "I'm _sorry,_ Shini—I mean, Conan-kun, but you were just _standing there_ looking horrified, and you **wouldn't** answer me, so I---"

He interrupted her, looking wildly about.  "Did you see him?  _Did you see him??"_

"Who, who??"  By now the class had bunched up pretty thoroughly in a jumbled mass around their two-person huddle; Teacher had her hands full restoring order, and the somewhat wounded look that she sent Conan spoke volumes.  Impatiently he turned back to Rin.  "You--- _didn't_ see him?  Not at _all_?"

Rin dragged him into his place in the line, which was beginning to move again.  _"WHO,_ for crying out loud??"  Her young voice held a mixture of exasperation and worry.

_"Toshiro-kun,_ that's who--- he was standing **right** in the middle of the hallway, and the kids were all walking around him---"

Brief silence; then:  "Shinich—umm, Conan… I didn't see _anyone_, not standing still in the hallway; and I was facing the same way you were.  All the kids I saw were moving…..  I didn't see _anybody_ standing still….."

The line of gradeschoolers blended in with the rest of the kids; Conan turned to stare down the corridor, his bones feeling cold beneath his skin.  "He was standing _right there….."_ he whispered, moving away.  Rin shook her head silently, eyes fixed on his and dark with worry.  Conan blew out a breath, then plodded down the hallway with the rest of the kids, deep in troubled thought.

_*What the HELL just HAPPENED here?!?  I mean, I SAW him; he was standing right there.  And what the hell was he saying?  Just two words… it looked like…*_
    
    It had looked like _Help me._

**************************************************************

And then there was the incident with the Janitor.

Recess had _finally_ come, and with it a measure of freedom.  _*At last--- Man, I need a BREAK.  Just a few minutes with no 'Conan', no boring class, no irritating classmates, nothing but a chance to really think.*_  The boy glanced past his shoulder as he took the familiar path towards the South Hall; Ayumi-kun had immediately hauled Rin off into her second lesson.  They had been followed by a small-but-eager group of chattering kids who were all simultaneously trying to tell Rin-kun that they Really, REALLY Wanted To Learn Karate.

Conan muffled a snicker, slipping through the doorway; _*Rin-kun, I'm afraid there's no saving you from that little trap--- you set that one up all yourself.  I'd do pretty much anything for you, but….. even I've got limits.  Have fun!*_

He glanced cautiously around the empty hallway.  _*Huh-- no Hei-san?  He usually makes it here by now; I don't really feel much like reading today, but I DO want to use one of the Faculty Break Rooms for some peace and quiet---*_

His thoughts were rudely interrupted by an outburst of voices that came directly from the opening door of the very Break Room he had been contemplating.  "---HELL with that, I don't want anyone messing around with my stuff!  Absolutely NOT--- I've got valuable, delicate instruments stored in there, and no low-class uneducated---"  Conan ducked back into a recessed doorway, for once thankful for his small size.

Three teachers, two unfamiliar, one familiar.  The young detective's quick mind assessed the situation; one teacher was clearly some sort of Gym instructor by his clothing (shorts, t-shirt, jacket).  The other had a large amount of chalk dusting to either side of the suit jacket where it lay just below his outer hips, indicating frequent use of a blackboard: some sort of lecturer?  No particular stains on his clothing or skin, without a closer look it was hard to tell--- Never mind; not important.  They were both gesticulating, trying to calm down their colleague, who was only _too_ familiar.

Ojiwa-sensei, large as life and very, very angry.  "—Goddamned little peon, where does he get off telling me I _have_ to open my office and storage room for him?  Just because he can't do his job without everybody catering to his---"

The Gym teacher tried to interject a placating note.  "Hold on, now, Ojiwa-san, it's not that bad--- we're *all* having to open our storage areas for this---"  The chalk-marked teacher nodded emphatically, his sallow face annoyed.  In a reedy voice he stuttered: "A-and if you think, hrm, a bad employee, well, y-you can always, hrmmm, _complaint_ form at Administration, you know---"

_*Man--- I hope I never have to take any of THIS guy's lectures…..*_

Their words had little effect.  "He can just find some other way to handle his little problem.  I don't have TIME for this sort of shit---"  The chalk-marked teacher looked affronted by Ojiwa's language.  _"R-really,_ colleague---"

And at that exact moment, here came Hei-san and his cart, right around the hallway corner.  Conan drew in a tight breath, pressing further back into his doorway.

The Janitor's thin, rather bland face looked somewhat preoccupied; there were frown lines between his eyes, but they lessened at the sight of Ojiwa-sensei.  He stopped, stepping around his cart.  "Ojiwa-sensei?  Did you get the memo from Housekeeping?  I'll need you to---"

He was abruptly interrupted by the science teacher's profane interjection and the beginnings of a rant that was, at best, only half-intelligible.  The older man's contemptuous words seemed to have little effect on the Janitor, who simply waited patiently until Ojiwa ran down a little.  Placatingly he held up his hands to shoulder level, palms out.  "Sensei, if you would please take a minute to listen, we have a _mouse problem_--- all I need is to get into all locked rooms so I can place traps.  I've already managed most of the other teachers' offices and storage areas, but I _still_ need to---"

The notion seemed to incense the other man; his colleagues drew back in alarm as he sputtered with rage and raised his voice.  _"I said NO and I mean NO, you halfwit!!!_  What do I have to DO to _make you understand?!?_-----  Give me the Goddamned traps, and I'll place them myself!  I will NOT open _MY OFFICE_ to all the _*shit*_ that the school system sees _fit to employ_---"

At about this time, the Gym teacher made an unfortunate choice; he reached forward from behind to lay one hand on his co-worker's shoulder.  The man reacted in a way that seemed far out of proportion to the situation, spinning to shove the teacher hard in the chest with one hand---

--- and striking Hei-san sharply across his cheek with the _other._  The slight man stumbled back against his cart, one hand to his face.  There was a clattering crash as his keys slid out of one pocket to land in metallic disarray on the floor-tiles. 

For a long, turbulent moment, the scene seemed to freeze before Conan's eyes; he had time to think _What is WRONG with that man?  He acts like he's psychotic or on drugs or something_ before Ojiwa's two colleagues caught at his arms, attempting to calm him down.  The red-faced man jerked away from them, breathing hard and glaring at the Janitor, who stared him down with narrowed eyes.  "That was _uncalled for, _Ojiwa-sensei."  He rubbed carefully at the place where he had been struck, pushing back his maintenance cap with the other hand.  In that moment he seemed oddly different, a little more imposing, a little less like a custodian and more like someone you really wouldn't want angry at you…..  His faded brown eyes were darker and his lips were set in a straight, humorless line.

Ojiwa-sensei snarled something incoherent and pushed past the younger man, stomping his way down the hall.  Conan shrank back into his doorway, hoping to escape notice; and it seemed that he had done just that---

--- except for the bare second when the teacher's eyes flashed his way, meeting his own startled gaze with a baleful hatefulness that spilled malice and venom over whatever it touched; the man paused for a breath, eyes blazing---

--- and then stomped on down the hall without a word.

Frozen silence.

Slowly Conan stepped out from the doorway, barely aware of his own movements.  He stared after Ojiwa's retreating form.  _*The way he looked at me--- if looks could kill---*_  The two other teachers paid little attention to the apparent gradeschooler, hurrying away in a cloud of muttered comments and horrified imprecations.  But Hei-san sighed, shaking his head.  "Idiot."  The voice was rueful, annoyed--- tired.  And there was something in its timbre that seemed a little out of place, a slightly jarring note that did _not_ match the Hei-san that Conan had come to know over the past month…..

He knelt, picking up the jangling ring of keys.  "Here, Hei-san---"  As the boy handed the keys to the older man, his attention was caught by something tangled in the mass of metal: a woven cord, not too long with some sort of charm on the end, black and gold enamel---

The thin, clever hands took the keys from his, slipping them back into a pocket.  "Thanks, kid.  What a stupid mess over something so _small---_  I mean, all I want to do is set some traps in Sensei's precious storage room and office, not screw with his stuff…"  The Janitor rubbed irately at the side of his face where he had been struck, and a suddenly wary Conan watched him with new eyes.  "Does it hurt, Hei-san?  Maybe you should go see the Nurse's office," he offered, moving a step or two unobtrusively to one side for a better look…..

There was no mark upon the skin.  It had been a hard side-of-the-hand type of blow, but Hei-san's face showed no sign of a bruise, no reddening or anything else.  Nothing.

And in this case, _nothing_ suddenly made a great deal of sense, at least in regards to Hei-san.  Conan's own face went quietly blank as he worked to keep his feelings invisible.  _*Well, that explains a hell of a lot, doesn't it?  But-- think about it later, Kudo, not now, not here.  And think about some way to get into Ojiwa-san's office while you're at it, won't you?  That's the key, that's what I have to do next.  And THEN I can deal with Hei-san.  But… why---  No.  Later.*_

He frowned up at the Janitor, nothing but a precocious child worried about his friend.  "Are you alright?  I have to go back to the playground now---" said the boy, sounding a little uncertain.

The Janitor waved at him.  "Nahhh, I'm fine.  You go on, and don't worry about this.  Teachers can be weird sometimes."  The boy nodded and slipped out the door, trotting towards his sempai out on the playground.

Behind him, Hei-san watched him go, fingering the charm in his pocket somewhat ruefully.  "Damn…" he muttered, the faintest of grins passing over his face as he rubbed his bruised cheekbone with one hand.

**************************************************************

The rest of the day was… ordinary.  Painfully, mind-numbingly ordinary, filled with childish classmates and Teacher's cheerful voice and disgustingly easy 'work', brightened only (though significantly) by Rin's presence.  Conan was troubled, and she knew it; occasionally she would try to draw what was bothering him out with a careful question or two, but for the most part she let him be.  But every now and then he could feel her gaze sweeping across his face, could feel her concern brushing across him like the softest of feathers.  It made him smile a little to himself; _*Ran, this is one thing I'm not going to bother you with--- Hei-san's MY problem.  And as for what I've got planned for the evening… well, with any luck, I'll be in and out before you know it.  Probably won't even need those lockpicks I've been fooling around with.*_

The lockpicks had been a partial success--- he had the feeling that, with a little practice, he could become pretty proficient with them.  But that would take time, and time was not something he had in quantity right now….. so he'd just have to improvise.  _*Hey, I'm GOOD at improvising; should be a piece of cake.*_

_*I hope.*_

**************************************************************

"Tests?  What _kind_ of tests?"  Rin looked understandably worried as she eyed Conan, kicking a pebble across the sidewalk halfway between their school and the Mouri's residence.

He shrugged.  "Probably the same sort of things that he did for me just after I was changed--- measurements, density checks, a few cell samples, maybe a test-tube or so of blood drawn--- nothing much.  Agasa-san just needs to keep tabs on our status as time passes so he can note any changes."

Still walking, Rin frowned and brushed a lock of her long hair back; she had tied it in a long tail, but strands kept slipping out… something which Shinichi/Conan found to be amazingly cute.  No matter what her apparent age was, Ran/Rin was, frankly, adorable.

Right now, though, she probably felt more apprehensive than adorable; her brow wrinkled and she stared at the boy.  _"Have_ there been any changes, though?  I mean, it _has_ been a year….."

He half-smiled.  "Yeah… don't you remember?  You had to let down the hems of my long pants--- I've grown a little over an inch."  That little realization had landed smack between _alarming_ and _encouraging;_ it meant that he was capable of physical change--- that he wasn't going to be stuck as an undersized dwarf all the rest of his remaining lifetime, however long that might be.  On the other hand, it also spoke of a certain permanency regarding his condition and offered evidence that his body was getting used to being that of a child's again.  _Not_ good.

They had reached the doorway; Rin stepped inside, still frowning a little.  "I *have* actually noticed one odd thing…..  I was planning to mention it to the Professor sooner or later.  Do you remember that time I cut my elbow open ice-skating when we were six?"

Shinichi nodded; "Yeah, you tried to take out half the rink's skaters by sliding across the ice on your stomach, spinning like a Frisbee."  She scowled, knuckling him on the head, _thump!_  "I _was_ just learning how to skate…" she pointed out.  "Anyway, the scar is still on my elbow, just like always.  _BUT….._ my appendicitis scar from when I was twelve _*isn't*_ there--- not a scrap of it."

_That_ raised his eyebrows.

"So, anyway… I've been checking a few other things--- scars from a bike wreck I was in when I was fourteen, a burn-mark from ironing that I got when I was about ten, that sort of thing--- and they're just _not there._  Anything from about age six and earlier is, but nothing beyond that point.  It's really weird."

They stood just inside now, and Conan stopped, slipping off his backpack.  "Tell the professor--- he'll want to know about that--- and you're right; it really IS weird.  I'll have to check on myself later--- listen, right now I'm going to head back over to his place and to do an errand or two--- I'll be back in time for dinner, okay?  I just need to take care of a couple of things."  He did his best to look nonchalant ('innocent' would've been a mistake; Ran had _always_ seen through 'innocent', no matter his size).

Still she eyed him a bit suspiciously.  "But--- well, okay.  I'll see you in a little while, then?"  He nodded, stepping back out into the afternoon sunlight.  Leaning against the wall just inside the doorway, Rin shifted her backpack off to lie with his against the wall.  She chuckled a little wanly.  "You know, I had to stop myself just then--- I almost started protesting that you were 'too little to go out on your own'.  I guess old habits really _do_ die hard--- that's the sort of thing that 'Ran-neechan' would say to little 'Conan-kun', isn't it?"

He smiled back at her, his dark blue eyes warm.  "It's kind of nice to know that 'Ran-neechan' is still there.  I haven't forgotten her…..  Anyway, I'll see you in a bit."  And with that he turned to go.

Behind him, Rin stood in the doorway for a few minutes, watching until his diminutive shape had vanished among the crowds.

**************************************************************

And less than twenty meters from the Mouri's doorway, a stone-faced man sat in a car and *also* watched as the small boy headed determinedly towards the school.  _"That's it….. right where I can see you, you little ****__bastard__…..watching me all the time…..  But I can watch__ you, too….." whispered Ojiwa Ryu, hard eyes glittering, hands knotted into fists.  He started the car._

**************************************************************

_*Good thing tonight's Parent Meeting Night at school--- things'll be unlocked.  I still may have to rely on the picks to actually get into his office, and I'd better check out the storage room too while I'm at it.*  The boy slid his hand into his pocket, making sure the soft roll of cloth containing the picks was still there.  __*Not very big, are they?--- just a bunch of bits of stiff wire with grips on one end.  Sure wish it was as easy to use them as it looks in the movies, though.*  _

His fingertips brushed against the small sticker-microphone that waited to be used, and he smiled a little grimly.  _*THIS time I won't put it under the keyboard.*_

Conan slipped through the gates of the school; the parking lot was already filling up with parents and the occasional student--- he took a deep breath and slid into the varying stream of people that were passing through the open doors.

_*Big crowd tonight--- wonder what the meeting's about this time?  Not that I expect to ever attend one, unless Eri-san takes Ran and I to it; whoa, scary thought there: since Ran has now joined the ranks of the Terminally Short, my sole 'guardians' consist of Eri and Oji-san.  No more Ran to run interference…..  Crap.  Oh well--- and that brings up something else, something that ought to make good old Mouri-san VERY happy; now that he knows about me, I can get Mom and Dad to start sending him something to help pay for my upkeep.  Couldn't do that before without chancing blowing my cover, but that's a moot point now, so…..  A little extra cash every month ought to make Oji-san a lot easier to get along with.  About time, too--- I should've asked my parents to help out before, but somehow the time was never right.  They can take it out of my college savings if they want to; at this rate, it's going to be quite a while before I need the money.*_

_*Unless Ai finds a cure…..  Where are you, Ai?*   As he trailed along behind a chattering couple, Conan thought about what he had seen on the inside of Mitsuhiko's notebook the day before.  _

_*Poor Mitsuhiko-kun…  I wonder what Ai'd think if she saw that little heart with her name inside?  Talk about déjà vu.  I knew the kid liked her, but…  Hope she doesn't smash him down too hard; it's really kind of sad.  And if I were her, I'd consider the fact that she only has a decade before she ends up looking like her old self again--- what's she going to do then?  For that matter, what'll **I **__do then, if the Black Org's still around?  …..You know, I'm starting to plan for the future again--- something I haven't done for a year; feels sort of good.   Maybe Ai'd better start doing the same.*_

He slipped out of the stream of traffic, noting that the lights were on in the other hallways.  _*Good.  Makes things considerably easier, doesn't it?  And if somebody asks me why I'm wandering around, well--- umm, let's see: My mom and dad are back in one of the meetings, and I was left with my… sister? brother?... brother, who took off down this hall, so I'm looking for him.  I can play the scared, whiny kid at the drop of a hat--- and slip away at the first opportunity.  Of course, I shouldn't have to do any of that if I'm careful.  But it always pays to have a good story ready.*_

Around the corner, past the drinking-fountain and the shoe-cubbords, down the hall….. it was quiet in the deserted parts of the school; his soft footsteps echoed off the walls, and half-absentmindedly he found himself exchanging his outdoor shoes for his soft school-scuffs.  At least they were quieter.

Two more sets of double-doors--- he had been afraid that they would be locked, but he supposed that fire regulations required that they be unlocked while anyone was in the building…..  Now, out the side entrance, through the overgrown courtyard (the shadows were hanging long now, and it was a bit dim there despite the remaining few hours of daylight) and into the South Hall.

It was a funny thing considering the surroundings, but he could feel his Conan-self withdrawing, fading back away as _Shinichi came to the forefront.  It was __Shinichi who padded down the brightly-lit halls, ducking under windowsills, darting past doorways; __Shinichi who took the helm.  __Conan would never do this sort of thing, not here._

_*Okay now, quickly; in and out.  Let's see, now--- I don't suppose you were so obliging as to leave your office unlocked for me, were you, Ojiwa-sensei?  Damn; didn't think so-----  Okay, then; out with the tools, and---  What's that----??-*_

As he drew the roll of cloth from his pocket, something _bright spun out of it to land on the tiles:_

**_*****CLING-A-LING-LING-LING-RING-RINGGGGGG!!!!!*****_**

In the stillness of the hallway, the sound was _deafening.  Shinichi stared, paralyzed, at the golden half-coin that lay shining beside his feet._

Coldness seemed to creep through his bones, coldness and shock.  _When and how had he gotten Toshiro's half-sovereign back?!?  The last time he had seen it had been just before going to bed a few nights earlier….. just before his last talk with the kid…..  Slowly, automatically, Shinichi leaned down to pick it up.  It lay glinting in his palm like a cold, golden warning._

_*…Later.  I've got to put this aside and think of it later.  Too much to do right now, too little time to do it in.  Work, Kudo!*  Small fingers shook just perceptibly as he stuffed the coin back into his pocket.  _

_*Let's see--- start with the half-length pick, the one with the single bend--- hang on, what's this?*_

Three meters away, the door to _STORAGE-3B was, just noticeably, __open.  He could see the edge protruding beyond the frame.  __*…Huh…  If I didn't know better, I'd smell a trap.  Big Time, too.  But as far as I know, there's nobody trying to trap me--- I mean, not even Ojiwa's nuts enough to think a dumb little gradeschooler would sneak into the school after-hours just to see what he's up to, even if the guy's unbelievably paranoid---*_

_*--- and taking advantage of the moment to investigate is part of a good detective's tools of the trade, right?  An opening is an opening.  The office can wait.*_

The door to _STORAGE-3B opened quietly; as the boy stepped in, he caught the faintest whiff of bleach from behind the door.  __*Bleach?  Oh yeah, that stain.  Is Hei-san--- he--- still trying to clean that off the wall?  I never heard from Agasa whether or not it was blood; I'll have to remember to ask him when I stop there on the way home---*_

It was _*then*, that moment when he was sniffing the air absentmindedly, that the __other scent hit him, making him cough: the faintest, barest trace of a sweetish reek, horrible and distant as a muffled scream._

_*Oh no.  I know what that is.  I--- God, **no.  And it's coming from somewhere in here.***_

The storage room was a packed mess of crates, boxes, old equipment, file-cabinets….. and it all felt _vile in that moment.  The very, very last thing in the entire __world that Shinichi wanted to do in that moment was to paw through that maze to find---  __*But I've got to know.  I've got to make certain.*_

His small size would be useful, for once; obviously it wasn't going to be one of the containers nearest the door, or on the top--- too easy to find.  Sidling, crawling, half-climbing, the young detective moved slowly through the room towards the back in search of signs of a disturbance.  And halfway along the right-hand wall he found it: disturbed dust, clear marks of things being moved… and an increase in the stench that was beginning to make his stomach churn.  

A single crate, no more than a meter long.  A crate with old, faded books piled _beside it, books that had obviously been removed from a container recently due to the lack of dust… his mind continued to analyze the data his eyes gave him, even through the haze of horror that was clouding his thoughts._

_*Oh God.  It's not even fastened down.  Open the lid, Kudo--- you've got to make sure.  You owe him this.*  He got down into a crouch, shoving at the corner of the heavy wooden lid with all his small frame's strength.  __*Open, dammit!--- open!----- OPEN!!-----*_

It finally budged, sliding sideways just enough.  A gush of stench gusted out, and he coughed, fighting nausea.  _*Just take a look… that's all you have to do, just one look to make sure---  Click on your watch-light so you can see, then you can leave and call the police---*_

He _looked.  And turned away, sickened and shaking._

_*Oh God Toshiro-kun I'm so sorry--- so very sorry---*_

He sat down on the nearest crate, refusing to look any more.  _*How long?  How long have you been in there?  That's not--- that's not a couple of day's worth of decomposition--- but it has to be, it has to be, because I saw you only a few days ago and you were okay--- you were--- Goddammit.  I knew it, I **knew this was going to end badly, I could feel it in my bones.***_

_*Now what?  Now I go to the authorities.  And what do I tell them?  That I talked to--- to Toshiro--- less than a week ago, which is impossible, because he's, that's been in there for longer than that---*_

….. and a noise behind him made him spin about towards the open door, hairs rising on the back of his neck.

_"**Got****you, you little**__bastard….." hissed Ojiwa-sensei, reaching for him._

**************************************************************

He would recall hazily, much later, that things did _not seem to move in slow motion like everybody always claimed they did; instead things moved too fast, much too fast--- things like Ojiwa's hands, coming towards his throat.  Only his instinctive jerk backwards saved him as he fell off the box to land sprawling and breathless on the pile of textbooks, scrabbling like a turtle on its back to turn over and __run._

Harsh breathing filled the room as he scrambled back and forth behind boxes and over the clutter of dusty equipment, evading the reaching hands--- there was no _Shinichi, no __Conan there right now, just the desperate scramble of prey trying to evade the predator---_

_*OutOutOUT, let me GO, gotta get AWAY--- this guy's not something I can fight, not small, not with a look like that on his face, he's dusted or something--- dusted--- shit, if it's drugs, then he's been sampling the goods, no wonder he's paranoid--- OUT, dammit, he almost--- SHIT!!*  The teacher's snarling face filled his view as Shinichi dropped flat and dove between his legs, scrabbling for the doorframe.  __*Too close in here, it's too close in here, no room to maneuver--- get OUT into the hall, gogoGO get away, get where I can kick (no, I can't kick, I changed shoes) or shoot or---*_

And then **_PAIN!!!, blotting out the world as something hit him __hard across the side of his head, _****_PAIN filling everything, a burst of ****__white__-and-**black**-and-**white**-and-**black**-and-**white**----- and he was flat on his face in the doorway and something was tight around his neck and he couldn't breath and he _couldn't breath_ and he **COULDN'T BREATH**-----_**

_and **black.**_

**************************************************************

****************************************

********************

_Sonoko--- you're playing the music too loud.  You always play it too loud….._

_Where---?  Oh yeah--- that's right, we were walking home from school and Sonoko said she had this CD her friend in American had sent her and she wanted to play it NOW and we went to my house because it was closest---_

_But you're playing it too loud, Sonoko; it makes my head hurt.  Even Ran looks like her head hurts…..  Turn it down; yeah, that's better.  It's not too bad, either--- though why you had to fixate on Madonna, I don't know._

_My head still hurts.  I'll just sit back here quietly and listen, and watch Ran while she talks to Sonoko.  Good idea._

_Weird song.  This is by Madonna?!?  I thought she just wrote stuff about virgins and material girls and that sort of thing….. this one's kind of weird--- it's like what the victim of a crime would think, or maybe a witness-----_

_I have a tale to tell;_

_Sometimes it gets so hard to hide it well._

_I was not ready for the fall---_

_Too blind to see the writing on the wall._

_Sonoko, this is a really weird song.  But it's not worthwhile to tell you to turn it off--- my head hurts too much.  And I'm cold.  Why am I so cold?_

_A man can tell a thousand lies_

_(I've learned my lesson well),_

_Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned;_

_'Til then, it will burn inside of me….._

_Burning.  My head is burning, my throat is burning.  Am I sick?  Doesn't matter; I can lean back and rest the cold glass I'm holding against my forehead--- that'll help.  And I can watch Ran.  That'll help too._

_I know where Beauty lives---_

_I've seen it once, I know the warmth she gives._

_The light that you can never see_

_---It shines inside; you can't take that from me!_

_Ran…..  God, but you're so beautiful.  I've wasted so much time; I should tell you the truth.  I really should tell you…. No, wait, I already told her---- huh?  What was I just thinking about, what truth?  There's only one truth….. I should tell you the truth, Ran, about Conan….._

_Who's Conan?_

_The truth is never far behind_

_(You've kept it hidden well),_

_Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned;_

_'Til then, it will burn inside of me….._

We should turn some more lights on; it's getting dark outside.  Sonoko, please shut up about American music and just let me listen--- you're making my head hurt more.  This song, man it's weird….. it makes me want to listen, but it makes me feel bad too, about somebody else… a little boy?  Why would I feel bad about a little boy?  

_WHAT little boy?_

_Ummmm… dark hair and a thin face, sad face, too-late face----- and why does that remind me of another little boy?  I can't think of how *he* looks for some reason, but I feel bad about him too.  Irritating little boy, somehow I know he is, but Ran likes him.  Ran loves him._

_…..If I ran away, I'd never have the strength to go very far;_

_How would they hear the beating of my heart?_

_Will it grow cold, the secret that I hide--- will I grow old?_

_How will they hear, when will they learn, how will they know…..?_

_They can't hear him, never, ever; turn down the music, Sonoko!  How will they hear me?  Who---?  Somebody.  I have to tell somebody that my head hurts, and that the little boy needs to be found.  I found him, now they need to find--- what?  I forget.  My head hurts._

_A man can tell a thousand lies_

_(I've learned my lesson well),_

_Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned;_

_'Til then, it will burn inside of me….._

_Lies….. secrets….. they're all poison, packages of poison beside a lake, bait for fishes that shouldn't bite the hook.  I know a secret.  I am a secret.  But my head hurts so much.  Sonoko must've turned down the music, though; good.  I can't hear it as much now._

_The truth is never far behind_

_(You've kept it hidden well),_

_Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned;_

_'Til then, it will burn inside of me….._

_Burning….. why is my throat burning?  Ran---  Ran, are you okay?  You're talking to me but I can't hear you.  Are you okay?  Ran---??_

_RAN---???_

********************

****************************************

**************************************************************

Waking up was as slow as the movement of continental plates, as slow as the extinction of the dinosaurs.  Entire empires grew and collapsed into ruin while he woke up, galaxies sprang up and died into primeval dust.

*Dark….. I was dreaming---?  Something about Madonna and Sonoko and Ran.  But it's dark, and--- ah, God, my HEAD hurts.  What the hell happened to me?  My throat-----*

Cold; he was so cold, and he was lying on something hard and uncomfortable and numbingly chill; metal?  It was hard to think past the pounding in his head, the burning in his throat.  Shinichi tried to bring a hand up to touch his neck, banging it on something close and hard in the process.

_*What---?  I'm… lying on my back, on something slick and cold--- metal, yeah, but I hit my elbow against something awfully close--- there's another one on my left--- God, my head HURTS!!!  Can't think….. why am I so fuzzy-headed?  Feel sort of sick, not throw-up sick, just like my head'll fall off if I move wrong.  It hurts-----*_

One hand slid up into his hair.  The place that he touched made lights explode in front of his eyes; his fingers came away sticky with blood.

_*HURTS---!!!*_

Eventually the lights dimmed down, and Shinichi lay there in the cold, close darkness, hurting and remembering.

_*Ojiwa… right; I was in the storeroom--- I found… oh God; I found Toshiro's body, except it was, was decomposed too much, it couldn't have been only a few days' worth, it was more--- and Ojiwa-sensei must've been waiting for me.  But… why me, why ME out of everyone?  Because I've had him under surveillance? Don't know, can't think--- everything's so hazy….. Guess he saw me too many times--- and he was dusted; no doubt about that.*_

_*Dusted…..*_

Drugs--- _dusted_ had once meant 'Angeldust', PCP, but it was used for everything now:  heroin, crack, cocaine, all the lethal little toys that humans had come up with to poison themselves with.  The look in the man's eyes-----  _*Yeah, he's been sampling his stuff alright.  Oh GOD, my head hurts--- so hard to THINK!!  What did he do to me?  Am I dead or something?*  _Shinichi's hands crept up to his bruised and abraded throat; he tried to call out--- then flinched in agony at the horrible, white-hot pain as it needled its way through his mistreated vocal cords.

_*Can't talk--- can't cry out for help.  And I can't think clearly--- concussion.  That'd explain it.  Concussion.*_  If he could have, he would've laughed aloud at the thought.  _*Not dead.  Just a concussion.  Not dead.*_

_*Not yet.*_

Dimly he tried to think past the pounding in his brain _(Sonoko, turn the music down!)_; where the hell was he?  Storage room, right--- inside something cold and hard?

Sounds.  Close by, as close as that horrible stench--- scraping sounds, rough and heavy.  Sliding sounds, thuds and crunches and shiftings.  The noise made him attempt to whimper in pain, and the pain made him go rigidly silent.  His thoughts chased themselves around and around in circles, spiraling close:

_*…sliding noises, boxes?  It HURTS to THINK, but I've--- boxes….. someone's moving boxes….. I heard a man's voice just then, kind of a grunt---- somebody (Ojiwan-sensei?) is moving boxes--- what the hell am I inside?  Is he going to move it too?  What am I lying on---??-*_  His weak fingers traced over the cold metal that lay so close all around him, fitting so tightly that his legs were slightly bent, going a little numb.  Ridges here and there, along the seams of the container (for container it was); something underneath him, like a track or some such--- a flat, cold bottom with another track built into it not too far above him, less than a foot---

--- a lock.  The _back side_ of a lock that would not click, would not turn, would not budge.  Shinichi felt his container shudder as something heavy was placed on top of it; if he could have groaned, he would have.

Quiet now, clicking of footsteps across a floor.  The closing of a door.

Silence, save for his breathing, warm breath bouncing off the cold metal back into his face.

And a cold, cold realization, stealing through his numbed and aching brain with the slowness of melting ice:

*A lock.  A track underneath me, a track overhead. Cold metal, a little more than a meter long.  Sliding noises, heavy things.  That smell.*

_*This is a filing cabinet, one of those long on-the-ground ones.  Ojiwa-sensei hit me on the head and strangled me and locked me in here, in this room with Toshiro's dead body.  He either thinks I'm dead or he doesn't care.  He piled more boxes on top so I can't get out and so nobody'll find me.*_

_*I've been locked in a box.  And my head hurts.  And I can't call out and I can't get out and I don't have my kicking shoes on because I changed to my scuffs and nobody knows I'm here.*_

_*I've been left to die.*_
    
    ***************************************************************************************************************************

To Be Continued……

_Ysabet's notes__:  Don't hate me too much--- I've been losing sleep over how to write this.  Reviews would be nice, though… or fanart (already got some of that).  Or whatever.  Gonna post the fanart to my fledgling website (not up yet), so it'd be hugely welcome.  And I've stopped worrying about how long the damned chapters are, okay?  This one was over 17,000 words, and it convinced me of something:  I don't write chapters.  I write sections.  Cool.  I'll have the next section up as soon as I can; be patient.  Conan's not going anywhere soon._


	7. Dangerous Playgrounds

**Second Wind **

**_By Ysabet___**

****

**_Chapter 7:  Dangerous Playgrounds_******

It was a good place to watch from, the window-seat up on the landing.  One could see in, one could see out; but, recessed as it was, one could not be seen.  An excellent place to observe the world going by.  The cars that passed on the road below, for instance, could be seen well enough to note their color and make without the least chance of discovery.  The neighbors' yards were easily visible--- there was even a good view of the vacant Kudo residence (although it was notable that the yard was beginning to look a bit overgrown; the watcher tsked silently about that and made a note to take up the matter later.  Neglect tended to be noticed.)  The few passersby were mostly children of one age or another on their way home from school or out playing--- nobody worth concerning one's self about…..

…..save for one.

She entered the gate, small hands latching it neatly behind her with only the faintest of clangs.  Quiet steps; the child moved quickly, diminutive feet near-silent in their tennishoes on the walk.  The watcher approved of her movements, her lack of scampering, bouncing or randomness (so very unlike that of most children, which generally brought the antics of laboratory primates to mind).  _This_ child moved with grace.

The door on the first floor was unlocked; the watcher heard it squeak open, heard the light footsteps and shuffle as the girl changed from her outdoor footwear into a small pair of house-scuffs.  That was the other advantage of the recessed window-seat: excellent placement in regards to sound, at least inside the house.  And if the watcher were to lean the least bit forward, they could see down to the floor below…..

The small girl was looking around carefully, taking stock of her surroundings.  Had she heard a sound?  Where was Professor Agasa?  Obvious trains of thought.  But, reflected the watcher, she really _did_ keep a rather good poker-face, didn't she?  The heart-shaped countenance under the tangle of dark hair was perfectly young, perfectly innocent.  How peculiar that innocence should come so easily to one and with such difficulty to another; for some, it seemed their lot in life lay among the guilty.

_*Somehow,* Haibara Ai reflected with the faintest of smiles, __*I don't think that I was ever made to be innocent.*_

She slid from the widow-seat, moving forward silently to get a better view.  Things were already proving interesting; how *fortunate* that she had decided to return home.

****************************************************************

Ran's steps fell softly on the tiles of the entranceway; she paused, glancing from side to side.  What---- no; nothing.  For a moment there she had thought….. but never mind.  From the recesses of the house she could hear the sputter and hiss of a welding torch, which told her that the Professor was back in one of his workrooms; God alone knew what he was in the middle of now, and even He probably wasn't certain.

Hmmm… maybe a little something to eat while she waited for Shinichi?  The transformed young woman headed for the kitchen, thinking about sandwiches.

Half a sandwich and a leftover egg-roll later, she sat back at the small kitchen table with a sigh.  One of the things Ran was finding hard going was her new form's _appetite;_ she seemed to be almost constantly hungry.  But she burned the calories right up--- no worries about gaining the least bit of weight, not for her, not for years.  Now _why,_ she reflected, can't that happen to a person when they're an adult and they _care_ about how they look?  It wasn't fair…..

Swinging her legs, she took a long drink of her soda and reflected that a lot of things had been proven to be 'not fair' lately; Mouri Ran was learning how to deal with that for herself--- it was when it affected _others that she had problems._

Like Shinichi, for instance.  She supposed it was sort of a combination of how she had felt about him before he had 'disappeared' and the protectiveness that she had developed for his Conan-self over the last twelve months; basically, it was easier to deal with her own personal discontentment than with his unhappiness, and this missing-child thing had him very unhappy.

And as for _her_ happiness or lack thereof…..  She felt oddly content--- almost guiltily so.  Ran crunched on a bit of ice, considering.  *_Well, let's take a look at the current situation, shall we, Ran?  You've exchanged the future you've been building for seventeen years for an uncertain and extended childhood; you've given up your education for a return to crayons and the Multiplication Tables; and you've surrendered your social life and the friendships of years in trade for a place among small, noisy little kids that you used to be capable of picking up with one hand.* _

*And worst of all--- worst of all, you have TOTALLY blown any cover you had as regards to your feelings--- you can't claim that Shinichi's 'just a friend', or yell at Sonoko when she teases you for wearing something because you think he'll like it, or--- or anything like that.  Nope; that's a lost cause.  You said what you did, right in front of your parents and everybody, and you told them why, too.*

Ran leaned back in her chair, stretching; she clasped her hands behind her head and smiled a little to herself.

_*You did it because you wanted to be with Shinichi.  You did it because you wanted to be happy, and that was the only way, for you.  And you're glad.  Stupid, but glad.  So I guess contentment's where you find it, ne?  End of discussion.*_  

She chuckled, watching her own hands as they lifted the glass for another sip--- those hands were probably the hardest thing to get used to of all.  _*You know, people never think about their hands when they think of how they look… they think of faces, bodies, that sort of thing.  But you don't see your face twenty-four hours a day; you do, however, tend to have your hands in view most of the time--- and when they change, it can really be off-setting.  Just look at them--- skinny little wrists, bones like a bird's; fingers and palm long all out of proportion to the rest--- pointy elbows…..*_

_*And then there's the voice.  Little kids have high voices--- when I heard mine for the first time, it sounded so strange.  I kept feeling like I was squeaking!  But it's okay, I suppose--- I'm getting used to that.  Shinichi did, so I can too.*_

_*Of course….. there's the rest of it…..*_  Ran grimaced, brushing the crumbs off of her t-shirt and glancing downwards.  _That_ was the *other* thing she was having a hard time with--- after all, a young woman in her prime tended to get used to having a certain physical _profile_…..  One came to expect it with the years.  And suddenly, well, things had gone… downhill, so to speak.

_*Oh well----- things change.  And at least I know what to expect, this time around.  And I'm still glad I did it.*_  There was a certain _satisfaction_ to making your own choices, after all.

Sliding off the chair to land with a slight thump on the kitchen floor, she puttered around for a few minutes, cleaning up the minimal debris from her snack.  Off in the distance, she could hear the sputter and occasional ZAP!! from the Professor's activities; Ran hoped there'd be no explosions this evening.

_*I wonder how long it took Shinichi to get used to how high kitchen countertops are?*  With a last swipe of a cloth, she tossed it to hang neatly over the faucet.  __*The footstool's helpful, but there's the cabinets.  How does Ai--- oh, I see.*  What looked like a simple nylon curtain-pull had been attached to the handles of the taller cabinets; a pull in the right direction brought them open easily.  __*Trust her to have made things… 'efficient'.  I have the feeling that efficiency is high on her list of priorities.*_

_*She certainly dealt with me efficiently enough…..  Of course, she could've slipped me the capsule in secret; she didn't, though.  She let me choose.  Granted, she manipulated me quite a bit there--- that little speech in the House of Mirrors was very clever.  But I think she was telling the truth; she really did feel a bit guilty about our situation.*_

_*Why am I thinking about Ai so much right now, anyway?  Because she's not here?  Because-----*_

_*Oh.  Because I did hear something when I came in the door.  Because I do feel like somebody's watching me.*  A slight prickly feeling shivered its way between her shoulder-blades.  __*Hmmmmmm…..*_

Ran glanced casually across the kitchen; through the open doorway she could just see the foyer, with all its crooks and angles and half-visible corners.  A moment's use of the footstool brought her two glasses; she opened the refrigerator.  Without looking at the doorway Ran questioned the empty room:  "Well, Ai-chan, would you prefer fruit juice or some ice-water?"

"A Diet Coke would be fine, actually," said Haibara Ai, leaning against the doorjamb.

****************************************************************

When he wandered up from the depths of his lab in search of a cool drink and a moment's break, the last thing that Professor Agasa expected was to find Ran-chan and Haibara in calm conversation at his kitchen table.

The portly scientist goggled at the sight for a moment; the two sat, half-full glasses at hand, looking at him with near-identical expressions of vague surprise.  "Something wrong, Professor?" asked Ai, her usual cool expression sliding back with practice.

"Ahhhhhh, that is--- errm, _no; welcome back."  There was a somewhat uncomfortable pause.  The grey-haired man's eyes tracked to Ran's face; she sat composedly, kicking at the rungs of her chair with small feet.  At his worried look, her own dark eyes twinkled and she stifled a smile, shaking her head the very slightest bit._

Reassured, he glanced back at Ai.  The small blonde scientist gazed blandly back.  "What… did you expect a battle royal to break out between we two when we met again?  Hardly; Mouri-chan and I have been discussing the situation quite like, ah, _adults."  She chuckled softly.  Bushy grey eyebrows rose; with a shrug, Agasa poured himself his own glass of Diet Coke (a somewhat critical glance from Ai made his hand move hastily from the neck of the beer-bottle he had been originally reaching for) and took his own seat at the table….._

***************************

_All in all, their meeting had been very interesting--- almost enjoyable, in an odd sort of way._

_"So….." the young blonde woman/child said, leaning against the doorjamb with her arms crossed and eyeing Ran curiously.  "You did choose to take the capsule, after all.  I thought you had."  She accepted the glass, sipping at it._

_Ran had nodded.  "You expected me to, didn't you."  It wasn't really a question.  "You're very good at reading people's intentions and motivations, aren't you, Ai-chan?"  If the scientist winced slightly at the diminutive attached to her name, it went unremarked upon._

_"It's a survival skill; for those in our particular position, it's quite necessary.  But I scarcely need to tell that to a detective's daughter, do I?  Kudo uses it with great alacrity--- you'd do well to emulate him."  Ran snorted slightly in agreement, taking a seat at the table._

_Ai surveyed her for a long moment; one eyebrow raised.  "I was present to see your meeting with Kudo and what looked to be the beginnings of your transformation, back at the amusement park--- but after that, I deemed it a good thing to leave the area for a while.  All things considered, I rather expected….. less composure from you just now, Mouri-chan; we didn't exactly part on the best of terms, after all…"  The ice clinked in her glass._

_Ran took a sip, both small hands clasped around the tall container.  The house had grown remarkably silent--- she assumed that the Professor had reached a stopping-point in his experiment (either that, or he had managed to create something that exploded quietly.)  "I've had a little time to think about things, I suppose….. A person's perspective changes a bit when they're suddenly less than four feet tall."  She offered the other girl a wry smile, which was faintly returned._

_Ai slowly walked up to the table; sharp grey eyes examined every detail of Ran's appearance, checking proportions, skin tone, skull size, looking for any abnormalities.  "Well," she said at last; "You seemed to have weathered the transformation admirably.  Have you had many difficulties adjusting?  I must say, you make a lovely little girl."_

_Ran laughed outright; the tension in the room eased perceptibly.  "Thank you… I think!  It's been--- well, it's had its moments….. but it's been interesting, I'll say that much."  Her little-girl face softened slightly; "And I've had Shinichi to help me….."_

_"Yes."  The satisfaction in the other girl's voice made Ran blink._

_Now it was Mouri Ran's turn to glance towards Ai with curiosity in her eyes.  "You sound--- well, almost happy about that.  Why?  Why should what happens between Shinichi and I matter to you at all?"  Her voice was almost accusatory.  "You made the drug that did this--" and she indicated her transformed state with a nod of her chin; "Does it bother you that much?"_

_There was a moment of silence then, a long, hard silence full of unsaid things._

_At last Ai sighed, looking towards the doorway almost as if desiring an escape.  When she spoke, her voice was distant, almost tired.  "You would have to ask that, wouldn't you?  Mouri-chan, I am not one to analyze my own feelings to any great extent; I haven't lived the kind of life that lends itself to emotion, and I suppose I'm out of practice.  But….. yes; what happens between Kudo and yourself is important to me."_

_"You see….."  She hesitated, almost groping for words; "…you see, for the last few years I've dealt with people who cared not in the least about the consequences for their actions.  If a person was hurt, or their career ruined, or they lost their life--- the Black Organization operatives don't care about that sort of thing; it's their stock in trade.  They never pay for what they do, they never have to balance any of their evil with good; why should they, when they can get away with murder--- literally?"_

_Now she drew a deep breath, her eyes still fixed on the distance.  "But I'm not part of that any more; while I was working for them I could ignore the consequences of what I was doing--- and there were consequences; do you think that APTX-4869 was the only drug I ever made for them?  But… while my sister was alive… I could pretend that her safety was the only thing that mattered."  Ai's voice shook very, very faintly as she spoke the last sentence._

_Her eyes dropped to where she was gripping her drink tightly.  The scientist released it and flexed her small fingers, opening her narrow hands to the kitchen light as if asking for something: forgiveness? mercy? or maybe something a simple as truth?_

_"These hands…..  Mayano Shiho's hands…..  They did a lot of things that would have been better never done.  At the time, those things seemed like a reasonable compromise between my sister's safety and my conscience.  But now….. well.  What's done is done, but---  Do you understand, Mouri-chan?  I offered you the capsule because it was one of the few things I could do, to balance things out.  And I must admit that it was done in my own self-interest, as well; after all, Kudo was clearly planning to tell you everything--- wasn't it better to second-guess him and tempt you with this choice?  A sort of solution to some of your problems, all wrapped up in a nice, neat little pill."  Her voice had an ironic sound to it now, less shaken, more in control.  "Quite an efficient way of handling things, and with such an air of symmetry, don't you think?"  Yes, definitely more in control._

_"I am not--- very good with emotions; I'm learning, and I know enough to know that I have a great deal more to learn.  But I can tell you this much, and I imagine that it's the only time you'll ever hear it from me:  I do, in fact, regret what has happened to Kudo and to you--- not your current transformation, but the parting of two people that should never have been parted, young as they were.  I can't help anyone else who was affected by the other things that I created in the past for the Black Organization, but I could help you two….. and so I did.  And so I will."_

She sipped at her drink.  "But….. don't expect any great declarations of friendship or fellow-feeling from me, Mouri-chan; I doubt that I'm capable of it."  Ai's voice was careful and controlled now, very calm.

_Ran swallowed.  She hadn't expected to hear half of what she had just heard; her experiences with the young scientist had, so far, been only from the perspective of an adult squiring around a remarkably quiet gradeschooler, just one of Conan's friends.  Of course, that wasn't counting the House of Mirrors encounter…..  Even so, to hear so much from the unchildlike child in front of her---_

_Carefully she reached out, touching the girl's arm with the faintest brush of fingers; Ai started slightly, turning somewhat weary grey eyes towards her.  "Capable? Maybe, maybe not… maybe it's just a matter of practice, ne?  And it's not important, anyway.  What's done is done, just like you said; why don't we start off with that perspective?  I did mention that mine had changed quite a lot, didn't I?"_

_She smiled briefly, scooting back a little in her chair and giving the smallest of bows.  "Let me introduce myself:  I'm Himitsu Rin, and I'm new here.  And you are---?"_

_The other girl eyed her, and one corner of her mouth tugged upwards in a reluctant smile.  "How….. practical.  Very well.  Haibara Ai."  And she bowed back, her shoulders straightening a little._

_"Pleased to meet you, Ai-chan….."_

_The other woman winced slightly, her eyes pained.  "Must you call me 'Ai-chan'?"_

_Rin laughed._

***************************

"Soooo…." rumbled the Professor, taking a long pull of his drink; "What's brought you back so early, then?  I had, errr, thought that you intended to spend considerably more time… away…" 

The blonde girl stretched her thin arms over her head, looking annoyed and rather tired.  "Well, now; where shall I begin?  Perhaps with the Honshu Seafood Festival?  Or the First Annual Yokohama Beach Cleanup?  Or the new Children's Safety Bill, passed just last week?  Do you have _any_ idea how many police are currently patrolling the shores of Japan, being kind and helpful and _entirely_ too curious?  There are more good Samaritans than I would've ever believed possible before--- oh, excellent people, I'm sure---  But I did not need help 'finding my parents', and I wasn't lost, and--- well.  Perhaps you get the picture now?"

She rubbed at her eyes, closing them tightly; a crease formed between them as she sighed.  "It's been a _very_ long week or so….." said Haibara Ai.  "I decided that it was best to return and fend off Kudo's wrath as best I could, rather than endure the kindly ministrations of one more policeman.  I do believe I'm going to start twitching at the very sight of a uniform."

Ran stifled a laugh, picturing the situation as Ai continued to elaborate to the Professor.  _*She's not so bad, is she?  Rather cold, I suppose, but from what Shinichi's told me it's not surprising.  Speaking of which, I wonder what's keeping him?*_

She cleared her throat, interrupting a rather annoyed description of an encounter with Beach Security.  "Ummm, Professor?  Has Shinichi stopped by here yet?  He said he had a couple of errands to run, and then he was heading here…  He mentioned that you needed to do some sort of tests, right?"

Agasa frowned, rubbing his moustache.  "Right, right--- just standard measurements, nothing extreme.  But no--- I haven't seen him yet; I'm sure he'll be along soon enough, though….."

****************************************************************

Dark; it was **_dark, and his head hurt, and he was _****_cold__----_**

Hazily Shinichi tried to think through the pounding that was beginning to shift into a steady drone of pain in and around his skull, like the whine of an engine, permeating every thought.  _*Hurts--- what the hell've you gotten yourself into now, Kudo?  Dark---*_

_*and that smell-----*_

The boy shifted, feeling his shoulders bump against the hard metal walls to either side.  Cold metal, hemming him in tightly, too tightly, _too tightly--- no, couldn't let himself give in to claustrophobia, not here, not now---- not to the nausea rising in his gut, either; throwing up would be _intolerable_ in such close quarters, so----_

He spent a long handful of moments (how long?  Impossible to tell; his time-sense was _totally_ screwed) muzzily attempting to sort his physical feelings from his mental ones; it was hard.  The roiling unsteadiness seemed to seep through every inch of his limbs, leaving him limp and trembling and hardly able to think.  _*Concussion….. the brain gets bounced around inside the skull, resulting in….. I can't think.  Bruises--- that's it.  Everything's sort of numb and aching at the same time….. feel like my head's stuffed with cotton and the cotton has a hangover.  And my throat--- he choked me, right, I remember that, it burns..… can't talk, can't call for help…*_

He had to get out.  He had to get _out.  He wasn't going to let himself end up like-----_

_*Oh God, **Toshiro.  I'm so sorry.  I tried--- and it was too late already.  But that just---- No way, that just can't be right.  I saw him, I SAW him, hell, I talked to him several times--- how could I have seen him if he was already---??***_

_*And Ran saw him too, and Mitsuhiko and Ayumi and Genta.  He was there.*_

_*I don't believe in-----*_

_*Don't think about it.  Think about getting out.*_

Sliding his palms up along the metal top of the box that surrounded him, Shinichi cradled his throbbing head in his hands; he could feel the stickiness of drying blood on either side.  _*I remember… I was trying to reach the door--- he must've kicked me right in the head, and I bounced off something.  Shit, it hurts!!*  His eyes watered, and he squeezed them tightly shut against the lights that seemed to come and go in painful bursts behind the lids._

He tried to remember what he could about the dangers of concussion; it was difficult.  Sleep was the big danger--- you had to stay awake or at least have somebody wake you up every hour…..  Of course, if he could get _out he could find help-----_

_*Got to get out of here.  Got to get out, got to get OUT-----*_

Against a rising tide of panic that choked his bruised throat and made him hiss with pain, Shinichi explored his metal cell with shaky fingertips.  Cold, unyielding metal sides; a drawer above him that shifted slightly (though not very much--- it seemed to be full of files) under the weak pressure that was all he could manage to exert.  The backside of the locking mechanism, all sharp angles--- could you pick a lock from behind?  Did he still have his lockpicks?

And behind everything, there was the stench of death…..

The dull pounding behind his eyes increased; this wasn't going to be easy.

_*How long before somebody realizes I'm missing?  Ran….. I told her to wait for me at Agasa's, she won't be expecting me for a little while--- shouldn't be too long, though---  Ah, GOD, my head hurts!  So hard to think for more than a minute at a time.  Ran….. Oh crap. OH crap.   What if she comes looking for me and Ojiwa catches her?*_

_*What if he hurts her?*_

_*God, NO.  Got to get out, got to get OUT OF HERE-----*_

_Panic won. Not for himself, not for his own life--- but the thought of Ran under a madman's hands was too much. __ Kudo Shinichi pounded on the unforgiving metal with fists and heels, fighting against the sides of his prison until the pain in his head grew too much and drew him down into a deeper darkness (which was only another sort of prison, after all)….._

****************************************************************

"Cranial radius, frontal: nineteen centimeters……  cranial radius, dorsal: sixteen-and-a-half.  Hrrrrmmm…..  step up on the scale, would you, Ran-chan?"  The grey-haired scientist laid his calipers down on the table.  Seated to one side of the room, Haibara Ai jotted down the last measurements on a clipboard.

"Weight: twenty-three kilos exactly….."  He slid a marker up a notch; "Height: one hundred eighteen centimeters…..  I'll need to take a blood sample now; will that be alright?"  In answer she grimaced slightly, then rolled up her sleeve as she stepped down from the scale.  "Ah, thank you….. here, hold tight to this."  Taking a seat, Ran eyed the rubber Yaiba doll that she had been handed to squeeze with some bemusement; she raised an eyebrow at the Professor.  He reddened slightly, muttering something about a 'souvenir'.  Across the room, Ai's mouth twitched.

Ran winced slightly as the needle slid home; Agasa was careful, but it still stung.  She watched in fascination as the first and then the second vial filled with dark, dark red; something about the color-----

_--- something about the color made her feel ill; made her head hurt, her throat ache, made her feel weak and dizzy and---_

"Ran?  Ran-chan?  Are you alright??"  The concerned voice tore her from the momentary dizziness that had gripped her, from the strange coldness that had rippled through her for the barest of seconds.  She shook her head, blinking hard.  "F-fine…..  I'm okay.  I was just--- maybe just a little dizzy for a minute there.  I'm fine."  Ran looked up to see both scientists peering at her, one set of eyes a concerned, faded blue, the other set calm, clinical grey.  She shivered, clasping a hand to her inner elbow as Agasa withdrew the needle; the cold dampness of an alcohol-soaked cottonball burned briefly against the tiny incision.

_*What was THAT all about?  I don't have any problems with blood being drawn--- do I?  I mean, my body's changed and all that, but I've never had a problem before…..  It wasn't even that I felt dizzy because of the blood loss--- two vials, what's that?  Even for a child's body that's a tiny amount.  No, something about the color--- I think.*  She shook her head hard, shivering slightly again, then looked up to meet the Professor's worried gaze.  "It's okay.  What's next?"_

_"Next" involved more tests and measurements; as the minutes passed, Ran grew first a little impatient, then a little annoyed….. and then a little worried.  No Shinichi.  __*What's keeping him, anyway?  It's almost dark out.  He may be an adult under the skin, but physically he's still a little boy--- and it is NOT a good idea to be out in the city after dark if you're that small, not by yourself, Great Detective or not.*_

She glanced at the others in the room; the Professor was carefully adjusting the settings on what looked like a glorified blood-pressure machine, while Ai typed in data to the computer, small fingers flying.  The young blonde scientist had slipped on her usual undersized lab-coat on (which, the adult Ran had some time ago decided, was terribly cute; apparently teddy-bears came in more than one shape) and had settled in to her usual place with a distinct air of satisfaction.  "Prints?" she asked without glancing up from the keyboard.  In answer, the Professor grunted, pulling out a pad of ink and a grid-marked sheet of paper.  

Ran sighed internally; prints.  Shinichi had taken them enough times as a kid for her to be _very_ familiar with the proper way of rolling the fingers under pressure to create good prints; _*Oh well….. at least this_ _ink'll wash off.*_  She complied, marking the boxes carefully.  It amused her to see what small smudges her fingers made---

_*Nice and clear, as good as anything Shinichi ever took.  And where IS he?  I'm really starting to worry now…..*_

****************************************************************

He was dreaming.

Some part of Shinichi's mind knew that, in a strange, detached sort of clarity.  Some part of him stood off in the distance, watching:

….. he had to hurry, school was starting, Ran had gone on ahead; but the rain was slowing him down, staining his clothes and making the empty streets (why were they so empty?  Was it a holiday and nobody had told him?) a morass of scarlet-black, slick and--- but he had to hurry anyway, dodging from overhang to overhang, shielding the child-sized backpack that he dangled from one hand because his shoulders were too broad to wear it at the moment, of course…..

*****Poor guy.  Not one thing, not another.  Lost.*****

_….. just his mother, coming in to check on him, her lovely blonde hair falling over her forehead and catching the light in that way he had always loved.  "Did you have a bad dream, Shin-chan?  I heard you cry out."  She knelt in front of his small-child's bed, tapping him on one cheekbone with a manicured finger.  "Silly one, I'm right here-----"_

*****But you weren't here, Mom; neither you nor Dad were.  I miss you…  Couldn't you have come home, for me?  When I shrank?  Couldn't you have been here for me then?*****

_….. sweep of a flight of doves and the glint of an eye behind a mask of glass, dove-white clothing and always the laughter at the expense of stupidity and clumsiness--- the thief smiled down at him and winked once, then his smile faded into a poker-face and he nodded at the murderer's mark on the wall.  "Well, Sherlock?  It won't come clean for me; how about you?  Want to try?" and he handed him half a gold sovereign (stolen, of course), but no matter what the stain just wouldn't come out….._

*****Yeah, I know.  I know.  Stupid of me not to have seen it earlier, but he was good company.  I know now.*****

_…..Ran.  He could hear her on the other side of the broken emergency exit as he let the bomb schematics slide through his fingers and told her to choose.  They had only seconds anyway and then it would all be over; he handed her his life, told her to pick a wire, any wire, he'd be there with her no matter what.  And he waited for salvation or sudden death to come for them both….._

*****And I'm waiting now.*****

_….. faint flash half-seen out of the corner of his eye, and something was coming down HARD on his head--- pain, exploding fireworks like a summer festival in the night behind his eyes, and then the dull crumple to the ground--- they were raising his head, shoving something small into his mouth and forcing liquid down his throat--- he swallowed reflexively, then felt himself dropped dizzy and aching again to the harsh grass:  "Abayo, Detective."  And the old life ended and the new life hadn't begun yet and he was being burned alive-----_

*****And I'm burning now.*****

_….. Toshiro?  Where are you, Toshiro-kun?  That thing in the box, that wasn't you, not the kid I spoke to.  Maybe it used to be, but not anymore.  Where are you, Toshiro-kun?  Did somebody let you out of your box, or are you still trying to escape? The window in this room's too small.  I can't get out either, but I don't want somebody to find me someday like that, not like that, not like that, not like that-----  Toshiro, can you hear me?  Toshiro, where are you?…….._

*****Toshiro?*****

He was dreaming.

****************************************************************

And now it was dark out.  Two phone calls home had produced no results other than a rather cranky Mouri-san and a slightly concerned Kisaki Eri.  Ran's mother had tentatively suggested that she contact his school friends, but no; her daughter was fairly certain that Shinichi--- that is, _Conan--- wouldn't attempt to bother three gradeschoolers that late.  And what for, anyway?_

No; she was quite sure at this point that he had gone off to do something on his own, something regarding the case.

_*Shinichi, when I get my hands on you--- making me worry like this-----*  For a little while, annoyance was a good antidote to concern; but only for a little while.  And it __was getting late._

The Professor had finished his tests; he had settled down to mull over the data, making the occasional 'hrrmph' noise under his moustache as he jotted notes in her file.  Ai, on the other hand, had abandoned her computer for some sort of technical journal--- or so Ran thought, until she saw the way the blonde girl's eyes were staring past the pages towards the window.  "You're worried too, aren't you?" she asked her quietly.  "I would've thought you weren't exactly eager to talk to him at the moment….."  She sat down opposite the young scientist, resting her elbows on the table and cupping her chin in her hands.

Ai shrugged noncommittally.  "Oh, it won't be pretty--- he'll rage and throw a fit and so on, but in the end the choice was yours… and he knows it."  She chuckled softly to herself.  "In fact, that's half the problem; he has so little control over his situation that he hates to relinquish _any of it."_

Ran shot her an amused, somewhat pointed glance.  "Sounds just a little familiar, though, doesn't it, Ai-chan?  I believe the phrase is 'Takes one to know one'….."

Grey eyes narrowed, considering; then the lab-coated child gave a snort of amusement.  "You're probably right."  She turned back to her magazine.

Ran hung over the back of her seat, facing the window and fidgeting.  Already the street-lights were on, and Tokyo's eternal neon-haze was beginning to show clearly above the buildings like an artificial Aurora Borealis.

_*Shinichi--- where ARE you?!?*_

****************************************************************

This time, waking was more like rising from a pool of dark, murky water; from blackness into blackness, from cold into cold…..  It was a little while before he was sure he was actually awake.

_*But I'm not dreaming now….* he thought dizzily, trying to stretch his cramped limbs.  __*At least, I don't think so…..  Hard to think, though.  Feels funny--- like something keeps getting in the way.  Like wads of cotton in my head…..  Guess that's the concussion.*_

This was like… trying to read in the dark.  Nothing wanted to work right, not his body, not his mind; nothing was cooperating.  Shinichi's fingers brushed against the puffed and abraded skin of his throat; he coughed hoarsely, and felt his eyes water at the wire-thin pain that wreathed the movement in flames.  _*Ahhhhhh, that HURTS---- no way, nothing doing there.  Can't call out.*_

_*…Can't do much of anything…  Feel sick.  Dizzy.*_

Heart pounding in his temples, he tried to marshal his thoughts.  His feet hurt, and his hands--- right; he had pounded them against the metal until unconsciousness had swallowed him up.  _*Unconsciousness sounds really good right now… at least my head doesn't hurt when I'm asleep.  Sleep, that's a problem, I need to stay awake-----*_

Like what he needed _mattered at this point?_

He had to keep calm.  _*But it's hard…..  It's so dark and close in here, it's too small and I can't MOVE much and it feels like a coff---*_

Shinichi cut that thought off right there.  _*Shut up, Kudo.  Stop that now.*_

He tried not to think about what he could smell, so close by-----

But the throbbing in his head was getting *worse*, MUCH worse….. he could feel sleep bearing down on him like a huge, smothering tidal wave-----  _*Stay awake, stay awake… stay awake… stay awake, dammit….. stay awake…..*_

_*stay awake*_

_*stay awake*_

_*stay*_

....................

****************************************************************

Haibara Ai watched as the other girl shifted, turning to stare longingly at the window again for the third time in the last two minutes.  She sighed mentally, trying to ignore the tiny niggle of worry that was beginning to tear the smallest of rips in her relief at being 'home' again.

_*Home….. have I ever really had a home?  Perhaps….. my home with my parents, I suppose---? but that ended too early, and truthfully it was never very comforting, was it?  There was my sister's apartment, and my own; both were paid for and belonged to the Black Organization, just like us.  No, I doubt that one could call either of them 'home'.  Here, at Agasa-san's?  I am welcome here--- I do believe the Professor was actually glad to see me.  I suppose that this is the closest thing to 'home' that can exist, for me.*_

_*I've never had that before.  Interesting.*_

A clock somewhere in the house chimed the hour, and Ai looked at her watch; she was startled to realize how late it had become.  Surreptitiously she checked the window herself; nothing.  No short, irritating, admittedly-intelligent-if-occasionally-predictable detectives coming up the walk, no police cars, no skateboards screeching to a halt--- nothing.

What had the idiot gotten himself into now?  Mouri-chan was obviously worried, and she respected the other young woman's intellect enough to consider her worry valid.  Across the room, Agasa-san was beginning to pace, his brow wrinkled.  "Ran-chan?.....  Those samples you and Shinichi gave me the other day---"

The small girl turned to look at him, eyes dark with worry.  "Samples---??  Oh, right….. you were going to check them for blood.  Did you?"

_*Blood?*_

"I did."  He looked uncomfortable.  "I had intended to talk to you both this evening about that….. not only were  both samples positive for blood, but they were both of the same blood-type.  And-----"  Agasa hesitated, his bushy brows drawing down.  "There was one other thing, something worse.  On the first sample, the one on the tissue….. I found traces of human skin as well."

_"Skin?"  She looked horrified, staring at the portly scientist.  He nodded emphatically.  "And the second one had a number of skin cells present as well, though not as many….. it had apparently been subjected to various cleaning chemicals: bleach, several types of disinfectant and saponins, that sort of thing.  Ran-chan….. __what's going on?"_

Looking more than a little shaky, Ran moved back to take her previous seat; she ran her hands through her long hair, pushing it back from a face that had grown rather pale.  "I… yes.  It started about two weeks ago, when a little boy from school went missing-----"

Quietly, Ai listened.

****************************************************************

_*I don't like this dream.  I know I'm dreaming, and I don't like it.  It's dark here too, even with all the lights.*_

_*I look so pathetic lying there, don't I?*_

_*All this vapor--- my body looks like it's on fire.  That's right, Ran did this when she changed.  Never thought about how I must've looked… no witnesses, after all.  Just me, and I thought I was dying.*_

_*I wonder if I am?  Dying, that is.*_

_*Why doesn't that bother me more?  It should, shouldn't it?  I feel sort of… detached, I guess.  Nothing much feels like it matters--- everything's a long ways away, off in the distance where it can't hurt me.*_

_*Except…..  I can hear something.  Somebody's crying.  Who's crying?  Not me--- I don't feel much of anything, just sort of numb.  And tired.  So tired.  And it's cold here, colder than I remembered.   Who's crying?*_

_*Look, my clothes are already getting baggy.*_

_*Who's crying?  I can still hear it-----*_

_*…Ran?*_

****************************************************************

Professor Agasa's eyebrows rose towards his hairline early in the tale; before Ran had even half told the story of Nodomo Toshiro's disappearance, he was already reaching for the phone.

****************************************************************

Mouri Kogoro was not a happy man; no, not at all.  He had been more or less reluctantly involved in moving a few boxes from his wife's current apartment to his (she stubbornly refused to give it up entirely, offering the excuse of You Never Know, which made him nervous) when Agasa had tracked him down.  Presently he was muttering epithets under his breath that would have scorched the asphalt from the streets, all directed at a certain smart-ass young thinks-he's-a-detective,-does-he? in child's clothing.  He drove angrily, rounding corners sharply and with a heavy foot on the gas; beside him, his occasionally estranged wife sat silent save for the occasional bitten-off exclamation or muted 'ooof!' as he hit a bump.

At last she turned to him, laying one hand on his sleeve firmly.  "Pull over….. right over _there…" she directed; he caught the steely note in her voice and obeyed, shooting her an annoyed glance as he slid into a space less than a mile from her apartment.  "What's the problem?  I don't have---"_

"--- time for this sort of thing, yes, yes, I know…..  You've been grumbling about what a terrible inconvenience this is ever since we got in the car.  Now move over."  He snorted but complied, as she walked around the car to take the driver's seat.  "I won't have us killed or arrested for reckless driving just because you're in a bad mood….. and it _is my car, after all."  They pulled away from the curb; Mouri slouched back in his seat, growling something about 'pushy women' just below understandable range.  _

"What was that?"  asked Eri, gunning the car past a slower vehicle; the wheels screeched as they striped the pavement.  Mouri Kogoro swallowed hard and checked the fit of his seatbelt.  "Mrmph.  Nothing."

"Charming; you're learning…" she said sweetly, shifting to fifth.  He gulped and blinked hard at the passing traffic.

After a few minutes of somewhat life-threatening driving, she slowed down to a more sedate pace.  "So… why _are you so annoyed?  Agasa-san sounded legitimately concerned so far as I could tell.  What's the problem?"_

He grunted, wishing he could smoke (Eri had banned cigarettes from her new car, disliking the stink; Mouri had deep fears that she was going to try to convert him to a non-smoker).  "We're giving up our evening to go look for a little brat of a kid who should know better than to make this much trouble--- what do you _think's the problem?  Kudo's old enough to know how to take care of himself--- we shouldn't have to go running after him every time he-----"_

Mouri stopped at his wife's sudden laughter; he frowned suspiciously.  "What's so funny?"

"_You are."  She chuckled appreciatively, her sharp eyes flashing gold in the streetlights.  "First you call him a 'little brat', then you talk about him being 'old enough to take care of himself'…..  So which one __is he, hm?"_

He scowled, rubbing at his moustache.  "Both, damn him."  A car swept past them on their right, full of teenagers and loud music; the sound dopplered past, and the detective's head tilted as he followed them with his eyes until they were out of view.

Eri-san took them around a curve with an aggressive shift of the clutch; her husband tried not to wince.  "Correct.  So he's a kid AND an adult; fine.  Wouldn't you help him if he was still his 'old' self and he needed it?  And wouldn't you help him if he _really was a child?"_

A grumble of disapproval was all the answer she received.  Stifling a second chuckle, she continued.  "Now… our daughter wants us to find him for her, and apparently she's worried about some missing child from her school as well--- if it'll settle Ran-chan's mind, is it really such a bother?  Ten to one he'll have turned up anyway by the time we arrive at Agasa's….."

Another rather surly grumble.  Mouri-san settled himself as best as he could and hung on, wishing desperately for a cigarette.

****************************************************************

_*I'm pretty sure I'm awake this time.  It's kind of hard to tell….. if there was some light, any light at all, I'd know for sure.  But so far the only lights I see are in my dreams when I'm sleeping.  How's that for irony?*_

_*Hey--- I'm thinking a bit better… I think.  I still feel sort of detached--- like the rest of the world was a long, long ways away.  But it's not so bad now.  Head's still pounding, and I can't tell up from down from sideways; really dizzy.  Must be the concussion.  Don't think I could walk upright to save my life.*_

_*But I could crawl…..  Won't give up.*_

_*Wonder how long I've been in here?  No more than a few hours, I guess…..  Wonder if they've missed me yet?*_

_*God, but my head hurts.  Think I'll just lie here for a while, try and stay awake and hope my headache goes away.*_

_………………_

_*I--- think I dozed off again.  Hard to tell.  But I hurt, so I must be awake.  Cold; gotta try and stretch----- aaagh!  Bruises I didn't notice before.  Guess I got a little banged up.  So stiff.*_

_*Really tired.  Shouldn't let myself keep falling asleep like this, though; dangerous.  Hard not to, lying here waiting to be found.*_

_*I hate being helpless.  Won't give up.*_

_*I wonder when they'll find me?  I wonder--- **if they'll find me?  Shut up, Kudo.***_

_*Tired….*_

_*really tired*_

_…………….._

****************************************************************

"So…..  You're _sure that this child--- Nodomo Toshiro?--- has been kidnapped?  And you actually __saw a dropoff?  Why didn't you __*tell* us before this, Ran?" demanded Kisaki Eri, staring down at her small daughter, hands on hips.  Both parents were looming over her, faces dark as thunder._

Ran glared right back, arms crossed.  "Because he kept showing up!!  I mean, Shinichi talked to him a couple of times, _I saw him twice--- wherever he's been, he's been able to get out!  We didn't really know what was happening, and we're __still not really sure---"_

In the recesses of her mind, the girl added:  _*At least… I hope we saw him because he could get out.  I don't want to think of… other reasons why he could come to us.  **Shinichi doesn't believe in ghosts; I wish ****I didn't.***_

She continued: --- but we've been trying to find out.  I know Shinichi was looking at an article in the library today about drug-smuggling and coffee….."

At that, her father's eyes narrowed.  "Drugs and coffee.  I remember something about that-----"  He sat down on the couch in Agasa's main room, running a hand abstractedly through his black hair.  "Something about a bunch of, what, airline workers?  Got themselves caught running drugs, didn't they?  They were hiding them in boxes of coffee, I think--- yeah, I remember that one.  Made a big splash in the news."

Eri-san crossed her arms, mirroring her scowling daughter.  She pushed at her wire-frame glasses, settling them on her nose.  "Why coffee?"  Her gaze was turned inwards as she ran through memories of old court cases and evidence.  "What significance does coffee have in regards to drug smuggling?  After all, there are plenty of ways to smuggle drugs, some good, some bad; I've seen cases where drugs were smuggled in hollowed-out shoes, inside prosthetic limbs, electronics, fireworks…..  Why use coffee?"

Everyone was silent, thinking.  Then a small, clear voice spoke up into the quiet:

"Simple.  It's the scent."

As one, they all turned.  Haibara Ai stood in the doorway, lab-coated and with clipboard in hand.  For a second her stance and appearance fooled the eye--- for a second, she could have passed for an adult.  Then the viewer's gaze caught the proportions of the doorway, of the room…..  Her expression was as calm as ever, but a faint hint of impatience made one eyebrow rise slightly.

Agasa was the first to speak.  "The scent, Haibara-kun?  Could you elaborate, please?"

"Certainly."  She surveyed the room with a cool grey gaze; Mouri-san's own eyes narrowed as he added two and two together to produce the creator of APTX-4869.  Only Eri's rather hard grasp on his shoulder kept him from exploding then and there; he subsided, listening with a glower.

The unchildlike child walked calmly over to take a seat in one of the Professor's rather well-beaten chairs, hopping up nimbly.  "It's a simple thing, really; the chemical constituents contained in the aroma of treated coffee-beans tend to deaden the sensory abilities of the dogs that the airlines use to find drugs in the baggage and stock containers."  At their dumbfounded looks, she shrugged.  "It's not common knowledge, but if one looks around the Internet, it's there to be found.  Apparently someone decided to try that ruse again."  She crossed her legs.  "I wonder what they were smuggling?"

Agasa harrumphed, rubbing at his moustache.  "Could be almost anything--- "

"No….. it had to be something small."  Ran was thinking out loud; listening, Ai was struck by a certain similarity between her voice and the missing detective's.  She leaned back and listened curiously, her head tilted slightly to one side.  "The package wasn't really very large, and it was narrow; whatever it was had to fit in with the coffee, too, and Shinichi said that the boxes weren't really that big.  It couldn't be very heavy, either.  That rules out marijuana, I guess….. it could be cocaine, or pills of some sort, couldn't it?"

_*Interesting; when she's talking to people who know her for what she is, people she trusts, her voice still sounds like Mouri Ran's in phrasing and inflection.  I rather imagine that she sounds a bit like Ayumi when she's playing the child.*  Ai had never really bothered with attempting to alter her voice, save for the odd moment or so when she had to talk with the police.  She was more likely to keep silent than to speak to someone she didn't know; thinking back, she could recall what an act of will it had taken for her merely to introduce herself to Ran._

_*Rather ironic, isn't it?*  She allowed herself a small smile at life's intricacies._

****************************************************************

_……………….._

_*Can't seem to think.  Keep drifting off to sleep.  That's bad, right?*_

_*Gotta stay awake…..  If I die here, who's going to make Ojiwa pay for killing Toshiro?  And the drugs--- nothing but poison.  Hate drugs.  A drug made me this way….. 'course, it was supposed to kill me instead, so I guess I should be thankful.*_

_*I don't feel very thankful right now.  Head hurts too much.  Too tired, too cold.  Too much.*_

_*Can't seem to…..  It's like my thoughts keep chasing each other 'round in circles.  Gotta stay awake.*_

_*Wonder how long I've been in here?  Don't know, can't tell shit here in this darkness.  Nothing but the cold and… that smell… and the dark.  I'm cold.*_

_*Cold.*_

_…………………_

_*Awake again; don't think I slept for very long.  Need to STAY awake!  Owwwwww….. thinking hard, moving--- makes my head hurt more.  Don't be an ass, Kudo; you've got to stay awake.*_

_*Good thing I'm not so nauseous anymore.  Throwing up'd be bad.  Come to think of it, good thing I don't need a bathroom, either.  Heh.*_

_*Not hungry….. thirsty, though.  Can't have been in here for more than a few hours at worst--- I think.  Wish I could move more than a few inches at a time.  Let's see…..  I can't quite straighten my legs--- not enough room.  I've got just enough room above my body to move my arms if I'm careful.  Can turn my head, but I don't want to; God, my throat hurts.  If my shoulders were any wider, I wouldn't fit in here at all--- as it is, it's pretty tight.*_

_*You know, a coffin **would be more comfortable.***_

_*Shit.  I stay in here long enough, this'll be my coffin.  Just like Toshiro.  Gotta get OUT.*_

_*But my head hurts so much; quite a lot of dried blood, isn't there?  He hit me pretty hard.*_

_*Bloody bastard.  Murderer.  He'll pay, one way or another.*_

_*Never mind that.  Got to get OUT of here.  Got to think of a way.  Won't give up.*_

_*But oh man, I feel like absolute shit right now.  Head hurts, body hurts, feel like there's this big gap between me and everything else…..*_

_*Got to get out.*_

_*Got to get out.*_

_*Got. To. Get. Out.*_

_*GOT-TO-GET-OUT-OF-HERE-----*_

_……………………_

_……………………_

_……………………_

_……………………_

_……………………*feel like I'm falling*……………………_

_and suddenly the darkness was different, there were lights and a familiar scent of cooling, sun-baked asphalt and leftover popcorn, and the lights of the ferris-wheel were flashing beyond the ticket-seller's gate._

_And a familiar form was waiting for him, sprawled in long-legged boredom on the bench by the merry-go-round. _

_"What kept you?" said Kudo Shinichi, yawning._

****************************************************************

The school was dark now, and silent.  No sound disturbed the empty halls that in the day were thronged with the noise and bustle of young life, no movement scattered the shadows cast by red exit lights at every outer doorway.  There was no-one around to break the quiet, no-one at all.  Everything was silent and still and empty.

The silence lied.  It was _not empty, and neither was it completely still._

_*****creeeeeeee-aaaaaakkkkk…….. **click.******_

With a tiny popping of catches and rattle of bolts, every window in every building on the school grounds slowly, slowly opened to the night air.

Except one.

****************************************************************

_"You know," said the boy to the young man as they walked aimlessly through the shadows, "we have GOT to be the first person in the world who can think better while they're unconscious than when they're awake."_

_The young man shrugged, hands in pockets.  "Go figure.  But so long as it works, I'm not going to complain."_

_The boy shrugged an identical shrug, kicking at a drift of late-summer leaves on the pavement.  "Guess I shouldn't either, then."  He stretched, thin arms straining above his head, eyes drinking in the lights of the midway.  "MAN, it's good to be out of that damned box!…..  Hey, by the way--- what'd you mean, 'What kept you?'"  He blinked up at his alter-ego._

_Kudo Shinichi hesitated for a moment, then frowned.  "Ummm…..  I've never been here alone before… have you?"_

_Conan stared.  "Of COURSE not; how could we be alone?  When we're awake, we're me--- or you, if you like; when we're here, we're us.  How could either of us be here alone?"_

_Shinichi sighed, looking more than a little uneasy.  "You're asking the wrong person if you think *I* understand what's going on….. but I've been here for a while, waiting for you to show up.  Last thing I remember are a bunch of weird dreams, and then I was standing outside the gate across the parking lot."  He came to a halt, leaning a railing by an ornamental pond.  "I didn't know where you were, or what was happening--- I mean, you're a part of me, right?  Or vice versa.  Whatever.  How could I be here without you?"  He grimaced and ran a hand through his hair, rumpling it untidily.  "This concussion's got us pretty screwed up, doesn't it?"_

_"No shit, Sherlock…" agreed his other self somberly._

_Two identical pairs of dark blue eyes stared down at two reflected faces; in the shadows of the empty amusement park, it was hard to tell who was who.  A passing breeze sent a twig down into the silent water with a tiny splash, breaking up the reflections and momentarily blending them into one._

_Shinichi and Conan shivered, turning away._

_"Well….. we're both here now.  We have GOT to figure a way out of that damned box--- how about we start by listing our assets?"  A nearby bench provided a place for the boy to begin emptying his pockets.  "Let's see….. what've you got?  
  
_

_Conan frowned, pulling out small handfuls of assorted debris.  "Ummm, a couple of rubber-bands, a little pocket-change, a couple of hard candies, a Yaiba Trading Card that Mitsuhiko insisted I take….. a couple of plastic bags, two sticker-'bugs'--- wonder if we can do something with those?--- that's all that's in this pocket."  He shifted, digging into the other side.  "Hmm; my keys, a twist-tie, my set of lock-picks… a lot of good *those* are gonna do me, on the wrong side of the lock… that's about it, except for some lint."  He sighed, poking the lot with a discouraged finger._

_"Besides that, I've got my watch.  Might get some good out of that.   And I think I've still got my glasses--- I wasn't wearing them, but I seem to remember feeling them laying on my chest.  Hope the microphone in the frame is okay."_

_Shinichi popped one of the candies in his mouth, crunching it.  "Huh; I didn't really think we had a 'get out of Dodge' kit stashed away somewhere, but it didn't hurt to look.  You sure there's nothing else?"_

_His other self looked annoyed.  "Why don't you check *your* pockets, Big Shot?"  Shinichi rolled his eyes.  "In the first place, we're talking about the clothes on *your* body, not on mine--- I mean, nothing in these pockets'll be available to us when we wake up, right?  And there's probably nothing in 'em anyway-----"  He stuck his right hand in his pocket; an expression of surprise crossed his face, and he pulled out a handful of random items.  "WHAT in the world---??"_

_Small fingers plucked a flat card of paper from the batch.  "A picture of Ran, huh?  Not surprising."  Conan grinned up at the young man, who flushed faintly.  He turned it over.  "But--- on the other hand, this is…"  Rin's heart-shaped face smiled up at them both from the back._

_Shinichi frowned.  "Where the hell did that come from?  Come to think of it, where the hell did ANY of this come from??"  He fingered a rabbit's foot on a keychain curiously; "A two-headed coin… an omamori from some shrine… a— I think this used to be a dried 4-leaf-clover…"  Then his fingers found something familiar.  "Now this I know--- it's a cartridge from the first time I ever outshot Dad on a target-range; see, there's the date scratched on the side?  I used to keep it for luck, but I accidentally lost it over the side of a boat in Hawaii years ago; what's it doing here?"  Shinichi ran careful fingertips across the scratched inscription, then dropped it back into the pile; he wasn't quite sure if looking further was a good idea._

_A thought occurred to him.  "Hey, pipsqueak--- check your pockets again, okay?"_

_Conan quirked an irritated eyebrow up at him, but complied.  His childish face drew down in perplexity as he brought out another handful.  "What the---?  Tickets to that Tokyo-Kyoto soccer game I want to see next month… a--- driver's license? a harmonica?… ummm, a picture of Ran, Rin too, just like you've got--- what IS this?"  He stared at the small puzzles as if expecting them to bite him._

_A chuckle from his older self made him look up.  The young man was leaning back against the bench, hands clasped behind his head.  "You know, we keep forgetting: this is a DREAM we're in--- or something like it.  So I kind of suspect we're pulling out things from our collective psyche about now…. I mean, look at 'em; I've got lucky pieces in my pockets, and you've got wishes and hopes in yours.  We've both got Ran, and Rin too."_

_The boy scowled up at him.  "You're going a little too deep for me.  And why the harmonica?"_

_"Ummmm….. no idea on that one; it's just one of those things, I guess….. Hey, what's that?"  Shinichi indicated a tiny cardboard box.  Conan picked it up, opening it to the park's overhead streetlights; he grimaced, closing the box with a sigh.  __"Oh, that? Well, if what you're saying is true, if this stuff is all imaginary….. Well, it looks like a capsule, and I'd bet even money it's the cure--- you know, the one Ai's always trying to find?"_

_Shinichi blinked down at him.  "Hang on, it's the CURE?"  He grabbed at the box, then cursed at the results.  "...... my fingers go right through it; why can't I pick it up?"_

_Conan snorted.  "Well, stupid, YOU don't need it--- you're YOU.  I'm the one who needs it--- why do you think I'm carrying it around in my pocket?  And it's not really the cure; I'd guess it's what I think the cure'll look like someday."  He began stuffing everything back inside his pocket, pointedly refusing to look any further at the contents of his unconscious._

_His older self frowned ferociously.  "So why don't you take it, then?"_

_The boy rolled his eyes.  "Think about it, Genius.  What happens if **I **take it?  I go POOF.  No more Conan.  Would YOU take it if you were me?" _

_"Ummm, I *AM* you...... I think."_

_"Right."_

_".....right."_

_Shinichi scratched at his head; he was getting a headache.  "This is getting us nowhere.  We have GOT to figure a way out."  He shuffled his own items back into place, wondering briefly about the small live frog that seemed to have appeared among them; the amphibian wiggled as it was unceremoniously sent to join the lint that lived in his left pocket.  "Thinking back… can you remember anything like this?  I mean, we've been trapped before, but I think this is the worst."_

_A cool wind sighed through the branches of the trees overhead, dropping more twigs around the two on the bench.  The boy leaned back, blinking up at the stars overhead.  "Ummm….. there was the time we were trapped on the--- no, that wasn't too bad; then there was that guy with the knife, but that came out okay.  There was that time we got shot, and I can't count how many times we've gotten knocked on the head, and there were those bombs--- what, twice? Three times? and….. y'know, sometimes I think we ought to change our line of work.  Think Kaitou Kid'd like an assistant?"_

_Shinichi snorted.  "Suuure….. besides, right now you'd end up pushing a broom.  Doesn't sound very appealing, does it?"_

_They were both silent.  Then Conan looked up at his older self, an odd mixture of anger, wariness and disappointment in his young-old eyes.  "WHY is he here, of all people?  I mean, this is *hardly* the sort of thing he usually does---"_

_"--- as far as we know.  Maybe he LIKES the custodial way of life?  Maybe nobody offers retirement benefits for master thieves?  Who knows how a guy like that thinks?  He's got a reason, that's for sure.  And I think he meant us to find him out, that last time we saw him; he could've palmed that little charm of his pretty damned easily, but---"_

_"--- he didn't, so I guess you're right.  Huh; if we ever get out of that box, let's plan on taking care of that little detail first thing."  Silence again, and then, reflectively (and perhaps a little sadly):  "Kind of a shame, isn't it?  I--- liked Hei-san.  I really did.  Can't believe I didn't see through him before this, but….. I guess I didn't want to."  Shinichi simply nodded, eyes dark._

_Then the boy continued, softer:  "If we ever get out…..  It's bad, isn't it?  Nobody knows where we are, there's no way to tell them, and a concussion just doesn't lend itself well to physical fitness--- any major exertion is out.  And I distinctly remember hearing more boxes being stacked on top and around the filing cabinet."  Their sober expressions mirrored each others', first in unhappy dejection, then in slowly strengthening resolve.  _

_This time Shinichi spoke first.  "We are NOT gonna give up.  First things first--- let's see if we can unlock the drawer we're in.  That set of picks--- is there anything like a screwdriver head in them?"  He waited while Conan thumbed through the picks, pulling out and brandishing one silently.  "That ought to do--- it's small enough for what I have in mind.  When we wake up, let's see if we can unfasten the lock mechanism from the cabinet entirely; that might work."_

_His other self looked worried as he stuffed the set of picks back into his pocket.  "Yeah, but--- there's still the boxes.  We're too damned small and too banged up to be able to move much, and the leverage---"_

_The young man cut him off.  "Worry about that when the time comes, okay?  Like I said, first things first.  We need to wake up."_

_The statement sounded strange, even to their ears.  Waking up meant ending their encounter, meant blending back into their original self (complete with the memories of a two-sided conversation from both directions at once, which could be rather disconcerting--- especially when they disagreed).  Not that this was normally a problem--- 'normal' had become a thing of the past long ago--- but waking up deliberately?  They had never tried *that* before, not even once._

_First things first._

_Shaking each other didn't work; shouting into each other's faces didn't work.  They slumped back on the bench, frustrated.  Conan scrubbed at his hair with one hand, sending it standing on end.  "We can't just SIT here, wherever the hell 'here' is----- what if that maniac goes after Rin?  And God only knows what being like this is doing to our body--- what if we can't wake up?  What if we---"_

_A *thunk!!* on his head interrupted incoming mild hysterics as his alter-ego thumped him once with his knuckles.  He glared at him, then subsided.  "Okay, FINE; so panicking won't help either--- got it.  Any bright ideas, Genius?"_

_Shinichi rolled his eyes, leaning back to sprawl on the bench.  He poked his other self in the ribs irritably with one finger; the boy swatted at him half-heartedly.  "WHY am I the one who's supposed to come up with all the ideas?  I mean, speaking in terms of time, I'm no older than you--- just bigger.  So how come I'm the one who has to-----"  He stopped as an unexpected sound behind them made both heads jerk around towards the main entrance of the park, a sound where none should have been._

_Footsteps.  Small footsteps, just barely audible; hesitant, as if their maker was unsure of their welcome._

_The young boy walked through the deserted amusement park very quietly, peering up at the empty rides with widened eyes; his dark hair riffled in the wind, and he hurried his steps as he caught sight of Conan's open-mouthed, staring form._

_"Hi, Conan-kun…" said Nodomo Toshiro, smiling a little timidly.  Then he cocked his head to one side curiously, looking up into Kudo Shinichi's astonished face.  "Who's that?"_

_******************************************************************************************************************_

To Be Continued…….

**_Ysabet's Notes:_**_  Heh heh heh sweatdrop….. and you thought this was gonna be a straightforward ghost story, did you?  It's taken on a 'life' of its own, I'm afraid; originally I didn't intend that Ai should show back up at all, but, ummm….. oh well.  So it goes.  I didn't intend it to to into the psychological possibilities of Conan/Shinichi, either, but that's just how it happened:  He got made into twins!  Weird, I admit, but it's a hell of a lot of fun to write that way.  The next chapter's in the works; I'll have it up ASAP.  Reviews would be wonderful….. Bye!_


	8. Dark Places

****

****

**Second Wind******

**_By Ysabet_**

****

**_Chapter 8:  Dark Places_**

_*Small hands.  They're so damned small.*_

_*Too small, too helpless.  But never mind that right now; they're all you have.  Things to do, things to get together.  Flashlight--- extra batteries?  There they are.  First-aid kit?  Maybe in the bathroom….. drag the stool up to the sink, look in the cabinet…..  Oh, good, there it is.  Stuff them in your jacket's inner pockets; they're a bit bulky, but who cares about that anyway?*_

_*That doesn't matter.  Don't think about anything except what matters.  You have to find him.*_

_*Hurry.*_

_*And take that knife from the kitchen counter, too.  You can hide it inside your jacket as well.*_

_*They're still arguing; how… stupid.  Why can't they stop---?  Don't they realize that this is more important than--- than anything?  More important than Dad yelling at Ai-chan about the capsule, at the Professor about giving her a place to stay, about me for not telling him and Mom about Toshiro.  More important than everything.*_

_*Just keep moving, Ran.  If they see you they'll stop you, so just keep going.  Ignore it all, just keep getting ready.  Now Dad's fussing at the Professor again; he won't notice me leaving.  Addresses?  In my pocket.  Ojiwa-sensei's first, then Nodomo-san's.  I don't know what I'll do when I get there, but…..  I'll think of something.*_

_*I have to find him.  I have to.*_

_*Hurry.*_

_*Shinichi…..  Conan-kun…..  Be alright.  PLEASE be alright.  Please…..*_

_*Slip out of the room, head for the door.  Shoes on.  If I'm quiet I can make it out without-----**!!!***_

The small girl yelped as a large hand clamped down on her shoulder; the half-open door banged painfully against her foot.  "And just where do you think _you're going?" growled her father's deep voice._

She squirmed to get loose, but the hand held fast.  Twisting around to glare up at Mouri Kogoro, Ran snapped right back at him.  "Where do you *think* I'm going?  _I'm going out to find Shinichi."  Her dark eyes flashed angry fire.  "I called you and Mom to ask for your help, but all you've been doing for the last twenty minutes is __arguing!"  She finally managed to yank herself loose from his hold, settling her jacket back into place on her thin shoulders; the first-aid kit in Ran's pocket clinked against the flashlight._

The detective loomed over her; a small, less-angry part of her mind wondered at just how _big he suddenly seemed.  "And what'll you do if you __do find the boy and he's in a bad spot?  Do you want to disappear too?"  Behind him Kisaki Eri's sharp voice cut through.  "If you think you're going out there like this---- Ran, I thought you had more __sense!  It's late, and---"_

"And it's not getting any _sooner for __Shinichi!!"  Ran ducked angrily under her father's arm and tore the door open, dodging through and out into the cool night air-----_

----- only to be swept up by a strong arm around her waist.  She yelped again in shock, struggling, but felt her feet leave the ground as she was picked up for the first time since her transformation into a child.

The humiliation was _terrible.  _

As she fought against her father's grip, Mouri Ran wondered dimly: had Conan—_Shinichi—felt this way every time she had dragged him away from something, had hauled him off by the back of his jacket or simply scooped him up?  She kicked futilely, flailing her short arms.  "Put me __DOWN!!!"_

"No.  Not 'til you come to your senses!!  Ran, you're being a little idio--- _OWWW!!!"  It was Mouri's turn to yelp as a small foot caught him sharply in the side of one knee; he dropped his struggling daughter's form, reaching for her even as she dodged past him for the door.  "RAN---!!!"_

With a gasp of triumph, she evaded his grasp and shot towards the door….. which slammed shut even as she reached it.  Her mother's tall form was suddenly directly in her path, and she was caught up, lifted and held tightly in a hard embrace.  "Let me go--- let me _go!!  Mom--- please!!"  But her mother's grasp did not lessen, and Ran's struggles were in vain as she was carried back into the main lab._

By the time her feet were set back on the ground, she was stiff and quivering with rage; the girl pulled furiously away from her mother's arm, glaring at the room like an angry kitten.  _"Somebody's got to go after him!!" she hissed, pushing the tumble of hair out of her eyes.  Part of Ran was still shocked at being lifted so easily--- so far she had managed to ignore most of the 'weaker' aspects of her transformation, but that particular detail had just been driven home with a nasty jolt._

It only made her angrier, and more desperate.

Across the room Haibara Ai leaned against the wall in the stairwell, watching quietly with her arms crossed.  Her calm, steady gray eyes took in Ran's now-disheveled appearance with very little sign of what she was thinking.  The previous conversation between herself and Mouri Kogoro (if one could call a rather one-sided shouting match a 'conversation') had not noticeably rattled the small scientist's composure, but by the faint crease between her eyes it was evident that this had changed in some measure.  "It's after ten p.m.," she said softly.

Mouri turned his head away from his daughter to scowl at Ai.  "So what if it is?  Short on sleep, are you?" he growled.  He had been less than impressed--- or, quite possibly, more than intimidated--- by the creator of APTX-4869's personality.  He had known, objectively, that she wore the shape of a child; he had even seen her before on a number of occasions.  But he had come to meet her for the first time as herself with a distinct chip on his shoulder, and the fact that she refused to back down at his snarls and bellows was… disconcerting.

As far as Ai was concerned, she had done all the apologizing she needed to do, and to the right person; no one else need apply.  Well, perhaps Kudo… or perhaps not.  It rather depended on how irritating he was when next she saw him…..

….. after they had found him, of course.

"It's after ten p.m….. and there's little to be done this late.  I'd suggest that you calm down, Mouri-chan; panic won't solve anything, will it?"  A somewhat wry little smile flickered momentarily across the scientist's face; "Of all people in this world, Kudo is one whom I'd trust to take care of himself.  It may be that he's in some sort of trouble--- that's certainly a possibility I won't discount, a _probability even, given his delay."  She shrugged her small shoulders, arms still crossed, and arched one eyebrow at the others in the room.  "But he's a survivor, is Kudo-kun, if ever there was; you can be certain that, wherever he is, he's making the best of whatever situation he has found himself in."_

Ran's anger had cooled somewhat during Ai's reflective words; she shivered, wrapping her thin arms around her own shoulders and hugging herself.  "I hope you're right; I only hope you're right."  The girl's face held a haunted expression as she sank down on the couch.  _"Shinichi….."_

***************************************************

_*Haunted.  We're being haunted.*  Kudo Shinichi's eyes widened in disbelief as Nodomo Toshiro, undeniably deceased, walked up to him to peer into his face.  The little boy's own eyes were tentatively friendly, if a little uncertain; he seemed somewhat taken aback by the others' reactions._

_"Um, Conan-kun?  Is something wrong?"  At his classmate's wide-eyed stare, Toshiro turned to look uneasily behind him at the shadowy amusement park..  "Is--- there something **scary back there?"  He moved a little closer, unconsciously seeking Shinichi's more adult reassurance.**_

_*Eeeeep!*  Shinichi looked down at the top of his head.  The kid was--- he WAS---_

_*Uh-uh.  No way.*  It was just impossible to think of Toshiro as, well, as dead.  He just… couldn't….._

_…..and the poor little guy was getting scared._

_He sighed, meeting his other self's gaze with a faint shake of his head.  Carefully he tapped Toshiro's shoulder with one hand in a light, comforting touch.  It felt….. normal.  Solid.  "Hey, it's okay; there's nothing to be scared of here--- really."  Shinichi knelt down, remembering how it felt to be loomed over; he smiled as reassuringly as he could at the boy's thin, nervous face.  "My name's Kudo Shinichi--- you're Nodomo Toshiro, right?  Conan-kun told me all about you."_

_Timidly the gradeschooler nodded, his eyes large and dark against his pale face.  "Uh huh; I go to school with him."  He looked over at Conan, who stood somewhat awkwardly to one side; then his eyes tracked back to the features of the young man kneeling before him, and he tilted his head.  "Are *you* his big brother?  You really look a lot alike….."_

_"Ummmmm….. something like that, I guess."  Shinichi shared a somewhat ironic glance with his younger self, grinning faintly.  "Toshiro….. do you know where you are?  Do you, uhhh, know where this is?"  He waved a hand vaguely around, indicating their surroundings.  A soft wind stirred the leaves of the carefully-pruned trees around them, and the lights of the empty arcade blinked in their preset patterns nearby._

_"No."  Toshiro shrugged his small shoulders, looking around.  "I mean, I think it's some sort of park or circus or something---- hey, is this Tropical Land?  I've seen it when we were on the train--- my Daddy said he'd take me there on my next birthday!  Cool….."  The boy looked around with renewed interest, craning his head back to view the ferris wheel and the soaring tracks of the Mystery Coaster._

_Shinichi's heart twisted in his chest; he tried to force down the lump that was forming in his throat with very little success.  There would be no more birthdays for Nodomo Toshiro, no trip to Tropical Land, no cake, no presents, no anything.  _

_Just a funeral, for a little boy who would never have the chance to grow up._

_Beside him he could hear Conan swallow hard; sometimes, when they were there together in their shared dreamscape, their minds ran along the same lines--- you could tell after a while that the other was thinking your thoughts, feeling your feelings.  It had nothing to do with telepathy and everything to do with personality; no matter the shape, they were the same person in the end.  It showed sometimes more than others….. like right now, when both their hearts hurt._

_"Toshiro-kun?"  Conan cleared his throat, trying not to squeak.  "Do you remember how you got here?  I mean….. well, this is sort of Tropical Land, I guess, but sort of *not* as well.  How DID you get here?"_

_The other boy hesitated.  "I don't--- I, ummm, I dunno."  His eyes dropped, shifting uneasily away towards the general direction of his toes.  "Things have been really weird…..  I---  Sometimes I want to go somewhere, or find somebody, and I just *do*.  I mean, I keep walking, because if I stop I sort of… go to sleep… and when I wake up, I'm-----"  He paused, his face growing distressed._

_"----- I'm back at the school.  And I'm SCARED."  Toshiro's lower lip trembled, and he looked up at Shinichi and Conan with wide, confused eyes.  "Something bad happened there, I not exactly sure what it was and I don't want to go back, 'cause I always wake up in that little room-----"  His words trailed off and he shivered.  "I HATE small places!  But I always end up back there, and I get scared because I know if somebody sees me they might--- might chase me… again... so I go back!  And it takes me HOURS to get out of that room, and I don't, I don't even know how I do it, I, I just *do*….."  The sentence ended in a near-whimper; the boy's eyes were dark with anguish and the beginnings of tears._

_Beside him Conan and Shinichi looked at each other, appalled.  The same thought passed through each other's minds:_

_*Dear God.  He doesn't even know that he's dead.*_

_*NOW what do we do?!?*_

***************************************************

"What do we do now, Mouri-san?  You're the detective here; do you have any suggestions?"  Haibara Ai's soft voice was dead calm.  

The dark-eyed man shot her a glance of distaste as he paced back and forth across the lab; muttering something distinctly uncomplimentary beneath his breath, he pointedly ignored her question.  With heavy steps he crossed the room to join Agasa and Eri-san in their low-voiced conversation on the couch.

Ai repressed a small smile; it was such _fun, baiting the older man.  Really, it was terribly interesting how he was treating her--- not at all like the child his eyes reported that she was, but with the honest dislike one usually saved for an equal….. an __adult.  It was quite refreshing.  She supposed it had something to do with his detective's instincts, his "cop's nose", so to speak; some observant little part of his mind had pinpointed her as a possible threat (or a least a force to be reckoned with) despite her appearance.  Perhaps it was a perversity of her nature, but she found that she preferred his bellicose attitude to the condescension that she usually received from those around her--- he simply didn't seem to __think of her as a child._

_*Excellent; he may be an idiot, but at least he's an honest one.*  She chuckled internally.  Ai found that she liked the man, in a rather peculiar sort of way.  __*His wife, now….. that's not a woman to underestimate.  Certainly the sharper of the two.  I'd hate to go up against her in a courtroom.*  Kisaki Eri was the sort of woman that the Black Organization tended to dislike the most--- intelligent, discerning, and not subject to bribes.  Not __infallible, no; everyone had their breaking point.  Threaten her daughter, her husband….. in Ai's opinion, no-one was infallible._

And that, of course, included Kudo Shinichi.

She leaned back in her chair, hooking one leg neatly beneath the other and turning just a bit to look towards the other child in the room.  Mouri Ran was still staring out the window, unblinking into the night beyond the glass; Ai doubted that she was truly seeing anything there other than darkness.  Her young face was drawn, the enormous eyes shadowed and filled with worry.  Ran sat so still, so very still that, when she moved to rub at her forehead with one small hand, Ai started slightly.

_*She's not thinking about herself or her situation at all, is she?  All she can think of right now is Kudo.  What must it be like, being so caught up in another person?  It's almost enough to make one consider attempting that state….. it would make an interesting experiment.*  One would need a __partner in such an experiment, though; a pity that the only available party was already taken.  __*Ah well; can't have everything.*_

Later, perhaps.  In the meantime…..  She slipped off the chair to pad noiselessly over, taking a place opposite Ran at the table's other bench.  "Mouri-chan?  What are you thinking about?"

If her question seemed impertinent or invasive, the other girl made no mention of it.  "Just… thinking.  Remembering."  She did not turn around or change the direction of her gaze, but remained where she was.  Leaning over the back of the bench, she sighed and rested her head on her folded arms.

"Remembering?"

A brief movement; it might have been a nod.  "Things that've happened over the past year to Conan….. well, to Shinichi.  Times when he got hurt, or lost…..  No matter what, he always got well, always found his way back to me.  Back home."  She closed her eyes; when she opened them again, Ai could see the raw pain inside reflected in the night-blackened glass.  "He's been injured in scuffles, gotten sick, even been shot--- so why does it feel so much _worse this time?  Why am I so __worried about him?"  She shifted restlessly, sinking back onto her heels.  "I feel like I'm betraying him, just sitting here without doing anything to help---"_

Ai looked down at where her hands lay loosely clasped on the tabletop before her.  "And what would you be able to do, if you were to go out?  Would you try to confront this Ojiwa, or perhaps Nodomo?  Foolish in the extreme.  As for Kudo-kun…..  You would be better off resting than worrying yourself ill; that's counterproductive.  You'll be far better off if you're clear-minded when we go looking for him in the morning."

That made Ran turn and stare at her, narrow-eyed.  "'Look for him?'  So far I've been treated like a little girl by the people I expected would help me the most; do you really think they'll _let me look for him?"  Her words was bitter._

Ai regarded her calmly.  "And why should that matter, Mouri-chan?  Before you changed, I respected you because you were your own woman--- and an intelligent one, at that.  Should I change my opinion now that you're like me?  It'd be quite a pity if you were to take on the _attitude of a child as well as the appearance."  She smiled a little at the arrested expression on Ran's face.  "Believe me, Mouri-chan--- I am not helpless.  __We are not helpless, despite our….. little problems."_

Ran's eyebrows rose, despite her despondency; had Ai just made a _joke?_

"So: _Shall we go looking for your stray Shinichi tomorrow?  With or without your parents' help?"  The young scientist leaned forward to rest her chin on her palm, grey eyes fixed on Ran's own._

Slowly the other girl nodded.  "Right.  And we can call Sonoko, too--- she can come with us, give us an 'adult' escort---"

Ai blinked hard at that, sitting back a little; she shuddered slightly.  "I suppose, if we must…..  I take it that you've explained matters to her, then?"

Ran nodded, her eyes crinkling a bit at the scientist's reaction.  "She found out by accident--- don't worry, it won't happen again!  But it's just as well, really; I mean, this way Shinichi and I—and you—won't have to depend on my parents all the time to go places."  She sighed, looking tired; her eyes were lidding with the exhaustion of worry, drooping.  "I was the 'adult escort' before, but now we need someone else; and---" she glanced at the trio on the couch "--- somehow I can't see my father always being as, well, as _easy about things as I was….."_

The small girl opposite her sighed, brushing back a strand of caramel-colored hair.  It was late and she was beginning to feel the need for sleep herself.  "As you say.  It _is much easier to move around with an adult presence.  Although--- no offence, Mouri-chan, but your friend is….." she paused carefully, trying to be diplomatic (not something, admittedly, that she had much talent at)._

Ran rolled her eyes and gave her a small, somewhat wry smile; Ai found herself marveling at the odd effect of the adult expression on such a very young countenance—a little girl's face, like her own.  "I know, I know: an airhead.  But she has a good heart, and she's not really an idiot… she just likes to talk."  Ai arched one eyebrow and looked slightly dubious at that, but subsided at last with a resigned nod.

***************************************************

"So….. you're saying it really _was blood in the samples…" growled Mouri Kogoro, rubbing at his moustache.  Beside him Kisaki Eri watched her daughter across the room even as she attended to the conversation.  The lawyer's face was set and slightly grim._

Professor Agasa nodded gloomily.  "Hrrmph, yes, I'm afraid so.  Luminol's a definitive test; the first sample, the one from the flashlight--- it had a large percentage of human skin-cells present.  Shreds, scrapings--- from the evidence presented, I'd say that someone was struck hard with the end."  He looked uneasy, glancing sideways at the two young girls talking softly at his table; the portly scientist lowered his voice a little more.  "And….. there was one last thing that I didn't tell Ran….. I found something else in the paint-chip sample: a very, very small fragment of _bone.  Cranial, I believe--- I'm no forensicist, but the structure of the chip and the porosity of its surface lends me to believe---"_

"--- that somebody got hit over the skull with the flashlight and then slammed headfirst into the wall."  Mouri grimaced, his dark eyes narrowing.  Eri-san made a low sound deep in her throat; her face was pale.  Then her eyes sharpened behind her glasses, and she pinned the scientist down with a needle-like glare.  "And you knew about this and didn't _call us?  Agasa, what were you __thinking?"_

The older man sighed, one hand rubbing at a kink in his neck; it had been a difficult evening.  He shot the lawyer a pained look.  "Do we _have to go over that again, Eri-san?  I was not aware of the bone fragment or presence of blood until I tested the samples, and I was out of Luminol until yesterday; had I known….. he trailed off._

Eri shifted impatiently in her seat, an intense frown on her face.  "We need to decide what to do--- a plan of attack, as it were.  Going to the police is out as yet; it's too soon, even if we're certain that Conan-kun is actually missing."  She arched one eyebrow at her husband, who grunted in affirmation.  "I'd prefer to keep Ran as much out of it as possible; I know she's still a young woman, still an intelligent adult despite appearances--- but she's still very vulnerable as she is.  I don't want to risk her too."

"So…."  Agasa tugged at his moustache thoughtfully, eyeing the woman with a respectful gaze.  "What _shall we do?"_

Kisaki Eri smiled, a shark-sharp smile that had graced many a courtroom.  "I have a few ideas….."

Her husband blanched slightly; he knew that smile.  Wishing violently that he had a cigarette, he pulled out a small notebook and pen from one pocket with a sigh.  It was going to be a long night.

***************************************************

_As unusual experiences went, mused Kudo Shinichi, this one had to be somewhere near the top of the list.  It wasn't often that a detective investigating a murder ended up trying to comfort the victim.  Especially while said detective was unconscious, half-dead himself, and locked inside a filing-cabinet._

_*What was that old Chinese curse?  'May you live in interesting times,' ne?*_

_It was turning out to be a long night._

_He looked over at the bench where the two boys sat together, talking quietly.  From his vantage point by the shooting-gallery (where he had moved to give them some privacy--- a moot point at best, all things considered) he could tell that Toshiro-kun had calmed down a little from his previous nervousness.  The poor kid was totally unaware of what had happened to him; he had nothing more than a vague memory of being chased down by Ojiwa Ryu, the "bad man" from his school.  Apparently he had overheard some of his father's conversations with Ojiwa-san, or perhaps had witnessed the science teacher threatening his dad; either way, he had somehow gotten in over his head….._

_Shinichi sighed, running his hand through his hair.  Bad enough that he—they—were stuck inside a possible coffin in a possible tomb; now they had a ghost for company._

_But….. the poor little guy…..  How could you be afraid of a seven-year-old murder victim?  A kid was still a kid._

_Leaning against the railing in front of the gallery, he listened a little more intently.  Overhead the sky was clear and dark, as opaque and oblique as the bottom of a well._

"So, how come you followed him to the park?"  That was his other self, his Conan-self talking now.  For the thousandth time he wondered idly why they had split like they had--- being his Shinichi-self in his dreams, that he could accept; but why was Conan there at all?  

_It was as if they hadn't split, but had instead twinned… somehow the part of him that lived through his waking hours had become as valid a person as Kudo Shinichi._

_Well, he didn't mind; at least he had company._

_The boy was answering back now.  "…. and I guess I was scared for my daddy; that teacher--- the Bad Man--- he was really mean-looking, and he always yelled at Daddy when he came over.  He told him that they could make lots more money if they kept on doing what they were doing, and not to worry about anything else…..  I thought that if I found out what he was doing I could tell you and the other detective guys at school, and you could call the police and put him in jail."  Toshiro paused, brow wrinkling as he remembered.  "The first time I saw Daddy go off with one of those packages he was dressed up like he was going fishing, and it was almost dark.  So I borrowed Mitsohiko-kun's flashlight from him at school, 'cause I decided I'd follow him the next time he went."  _

_Toshiro's voice trembled ever so slightly, and his next words were more of a whisper.  "I—I wanted to make the Bad Man leave him alone, you know?  I wanted to save him."  The thin shoulders slumped._

_"I went to the park….. and Daddy was fishing again; only he wasn't really fishing, 'cause he didn't have any bait.  He had one of those long skinny packages with him, and I saw him put it in that drain-pipe--- you know, the one that comes down to the water?  He stuffed it back there with his fishing-pole.  And then he went away, but not TOO far away--- I saw him hide behind a tree, so I went over and looked in the pipe with the flashlight."_

_Toshiro fidgeted a little; he obviously didn't like remembering what came next.  Shinichi edged a bit nearer, listening carefully._

_"I couldn't reach the stuff that Daddy had put into the pipe at first, but then I saw this piece of metal sticking up just a little out of the ground and I pulled on it.  It was a skinny piece of wire with a hook on the end, and I used it to pull the stuff out.  I wonder who buried it there?  It worked just great."  Beside Toshiro, Conan grimaced; so that was how they had removed the packages.  It explained the long, thin scrapes on the inside of the drainage-pipe._

_The kid wiped at his nose with the back of his hand; he had grown a little paler, his freckles standing out in sharp relief.  "Then--- then when I was looking at the package of stuff and wondering what it was, the Bad Man came.  He looked like he was going fishing too, but when he saw me he dropped his pole and bucket and grabbed me by the arm.  Daddy saw him and came running across the park, and then they yelled at each other a lot and--- and I tried to get away, but the Bad Man wouldn't let me go-----"_

_The two detectives sat silent, listening.  There was nothing else they could do._

_Toshiro took a deep breath and let it out.  "He said he'd "keep me for col-, colat-, ummm, col-at-er-al, whatever that means.  And then he picked me up and he told me to shut up or he'd HURT me really bad, and he told my Daddy that when he could count on him behaving he'd give me back.  And then we left the park."_

_Now the boy was trembling visibly; Shinichi came up to sit quietly beside him on the bench, and the small boy looked up at him, eyes huge and scared.  "I didn't want to get hurt, so I stayed still--- he put me in his car, and he said lots and lots of bad words over and over.  He was REALLY mad.  Then we drove back to the school, and I asked him what he was gonna do.  He told me to shut up and do what he said or he'd hurt my Daddy, and then he said he had a place for me to stay in, and he dragged me down the hall by my arm and it hurt 'cause he was twisting it and I started yelling and-----"  He paused for breath, then went on.  Toshiro's small fists were knotted together in his lap._

_"--- he took out some keys and opened up this little tiny room; it was really small and dark, and he said I'd have to stay there, and he shoved me in-----"_

_He stopped, full halt.  Something trembled in his dark eyes, something danced just beyond the reach of memory, something he did not want to see or talk about.  Shinichi gently rested one hand on the boy's shoulder, saying softly "It's okay if you don't' want to talk any more, Toshiro-kun.  I know this is hard for you."_

_The white face turned up to his, and the small head shook violently.  "NO--- I want to tell you this.  I haven't talked to ANYBODY except Conan-kun since then, and I want to talk about it.  Maybe if I talk about it I can understand it better; that's what they teach us in school, right?"  He gave a wavering smile to his classmate, who returned it in a slightly strained form.  "Yeah, that's right…. Go on, then."  Toshiro nodded, comforted slightly.  He continued:_

_"The Bad Man tried to shove me in the little room, but…..  I hate small places; I don't know why, but I do.  I think it's 'cause when I was a really little kid, you know, just a baby, I got shut up in a closet by mistake.  I just barely remember it, but I REALLY hate small, dark places.  Daddy always opens the window in my room for me at night.  When the Bad Man tried to put me in there, I saw that it was dark and that it had just this tiny little window and it was *closed*, and I guess I—I sort of panicked.  I tried to run away."_

_Dark eyes blinked; Toshiro frowned hard, trying to remember.  "He….. he had grabbed Mitsuhiko-kun's flashlight from me when he picked me up at the park, and when I tried to run I think he HIT me with it.  I don't really remember….. but my head was hurting and I was lying on the floor.  Maybe he knocked me out?  I dunno.  My head hurt a REAL lot, and I tried to sit up and it made me sick…..  I could see him in the little room--- he had this wooden box pulled out and he was prying it open….."_

_Shinichi looked at Conan; Conan looked back, and both felt more than a little ill.  So Ojiwa had intended to put the boy inside the box from the beginning.  Shinichi tried hard not to think of science specimens and glass jars._

_Not noticing their glances, the boy went on.  He was speaking slower now, struggling with memory:  "The Bad Man--- he came back out into the hallway, and he reached for me.  I got back up and tried to run again, but he was really mad now.  He shouted at me and grabbed me by the wrist and he pulled really HARD, and he jerked me off my feet and I hit something--- the wall?--- with my head, I think….."_

_"And that's all.  I don't remember anything else for a long time after that."_

_"But when I woke up, my head didn't hurt anymore….. I was really confused, though; I didn't know why I was stuck in that little room, and when I finally got out I didn't understand HOW I got out, or why nobody would talk to me!  All the kids at school just walked by me like I wasn't there!"  He sniffed, wiping at his nose and eyes again, scooting a little closer to Shinichi's reassuring adult bulk.  "I couldn't understand ANYTHING--- not why I couldn't go home, not why my Daddy couldn't seem to see me when I was right in front of him, nothing!  And sometimes I'd want to be someplace and then suddenly I'd be *there*, only I wouldn't have walked there or anything… though that was kinda neat, I guess."_

_"But I kept coming back to the school; every time I'd get too far away or stay away for too long I'd get scared that the Bad Man would come chase me down again and **hurt me, or he'd hurt my Daddy.  I didn't want him to hurt my Daddy."  Toshiro's eyes shone with tears in the lights of the amusement park; the strobes from the arcade reflected off narrow, damp tracks that streaked his pale cheeks with silver.**_

_"I didn't want to go back to the school; once or twice I tried to stay away….. but I just had to go back--- I don't know why, but I had to!  And then, after a little while, I thought about you detective guys again….."  He sighed, leaning a little sideways.  _

_The boy turned his head to smile wanly at Conan.  "I could talk to you; you saw me-- I don't know why, but you did.  So first I got the flashlight out of that little room where the Bad Man left it and gave it back to Mitsuhiko-kun, and then I went to see you.  You remember?  I talked to you and that new girl, Rin….. She could see me too."  He perked up a very little.  "She's pretty.  Is she your *girlfriend*, Conan-kun?"  Some of the pain left his young face as he waited for an answer._

_The response he received was interesting; simultaneously both Conan and Shinichi blushed a little, grinned and said "Umm, yeah."  They glanced at each other, then at Toshiro; his expression hovered somewhere between perplexed and interested.  Finally he shrugged; "She looks nice.  Is she here somewhere too?"  As the mood lightened a little, he leaned back and paid a little more attention to his surroundings._

_Conan shook his head.  "No…..  I sort of wish she was, but she isn't.  Look--- Toshiro-kun--- do you mind if me and my, uhh, nii-chan go away and talk for a minute?  We're just gonna walk down the sidewalk a bit--- I promise, we'll be right back."  _

_The boy looked nervous and slightly frightened, but subsided at the reassurance.  "Okay…..  Can I play with the shooting gallery stuff?  I promise I won't break anything----"_

_Conan looked at Shinichi, who shrugged with raised eyebrows.  "Sure; I don't see why not.  We'll be right back….."  The two walked off together to the sounds of Toshiro's increasingly enthusiastic attempts to knock over targets with propelled corks._

_Their steps echoed faintly off the attractions to either side; in the distance, the entry to the Mystery Coaster loomed like an open mouth.  Conan shivered ever-so-slightly--- he had no wish to go there tonight.  Beside him his older self walked with head bent, hands in pockets.  Shinichi sighed; there was a weight of sorrow in the sound.  "We've got to tell him, you know…" he said softly.  "He needs to understand--- the poor kid doesn't deserve to be kept in the dark like this."_

_Conan shivered again.  "Kept in the dark…" he whispered to himself, remembering a wooden box and the contents within it.  Beside him Shinichi fought off an identical shiver._

_"So, how?  How do you explain to a seven-year-old that he won't be going home?  How do you explain to him… that he's been murdered?"  Conan glanced over one shoulder back at the busily-shooting child behind them; Toshiro was moving from one pop-gun to another, a determined expression on his thin face.  "Hell, it's hard enough for US to believe this; how do we make HIM believe it?"_

_Shinichi gave him a sideways look.  "You're doing it again--- expecting *me* to have answers.  I don't know; I just don't know.  I-- never believed in ghosts, not even when I was a little kid--- um, well, you know what I mean."  He too looked back at the boy, and the grim lines of his jaw softened.  "Doesn't look much like you'd expect a ghost to look, does he?  He just looks….. normal."_

_Their feet scuffed through a drift of dead leaves, making soft crunching sounds.  "Maybe he doesn't know how to be anything else yet; or maybe that's how ghosts really are… normal, once you get past being scared of them."  Conan's words were tentative and uncertain; he stole another glance back over his shoulder at Toshiro.  "You know, if the Black Organization's capsule had worked like they had planned it to….. we'd be in the same boat.  Dead, I mean.  'Course, it wouldn't be we, would it?"  He snorted._

_His alter ego chuckled briefly; then his eyes turned serious again.  "So… which one of us gets to break the news?  You're more familiar to him, he knows you better---"_

_"--- but YOU'RE the adult; he'll believe you."  Conan shook his head firmly, his eyes betraying a certain sympathy.  "Sorry, hero; I think you've got the job."  With one accord they both drew to a halt, their two figures casting identical shadows as they looked back towards Toshiro.  He had left off playing with the cork-guns by now and was tossing pebbles idly into the ornamental pond; the small splashes reached their ears like ghosts of sound, barely audible over the breeze._

_Shinichi sighed a reluctant sigh.  "Yeah."  They began to walk back._

_As they moved along the sidewalk he older boy spoke, half to himself; there was a peculiar, slightly sad smile on his face.  "Y'know, in a weird sort of way I'm a bit like a ghost, I guess; oh, I didn't die or anything like that--- but I'm what we were up to the moment that *you* showed up--- and you're what we've been since.  You're getting older, growing; I'm not changing at all.  Isn't that what a ghost does?  Never changes, never moves on--- if we don't find a cure and Edogawa Conan the kid someday becomes Edogawa Conan the man, I wonder if I'll still be here?"_

_His other self gave him a rather cross-eyed look.  "Huh; and what've YOU been smoking?"_

_Shinichi aimed a half-hearted cuff at the boy's head, who ducked.  "It's just something I was thinking about, half-pint," he growled.  "Who knows--- someday you might be a grotty old man and I'll still be stuck here inside our dreams, seventeen years old."  He grinned a little.  "Sure hope I've got Ran to keep me company if that's the case….."_

_The smaller boy quirked an eyebrow in his direction.  "Hentai."_

_"Hey!"_

_"Don't you 'Hey!' me.  Hentai.  It's like I said before--- you just want to sit back and *neck* while I have to run things.  And quit calling me 'half-pint' or I'll kick you in the kneecaps."_

_"You wish, half-pint….."_

_They were coming up on the pond now; Toshiro was attempting to skip the flatter stones from the bank across the narrow stretch of water.  The lights of the shooting gallery reflected in the dark surface, sending wavering lines across to break in near-silence on the far shore.  He glanced up as they approached, smiling a little hesitantly.  "I almost got one all the way across!  You want to try, Conan-kun?"  In answer the boy knelt down on the bank to scoop up several stones, flicking the first one sideways with a practiced motion; it danced across the water, splash-splash-splash-ploop! to sink beyond sight just short of its destination._

_Shinichi sat down on the manicured grass of the bank with a grunt; he smiled a little awkwardly at the thin boy who was now peering at Conan critically, watching how he held his stones.  "Umm, Toshiro-kun?"_

_The boy threw another stone.  "Hmmm?"_

_"I….. want to talk to you about something Conan-kun and I figured out.  Something about, well, about you—and why you've been so confused lately.."  Toshiro paused briefly, turning a slightly apprehensive face up towards Shinichi.  "Me?"_

_The young detective sighed again.  "Yeah, you.  No, it's okay--- you can keep on with the stones if you want.  Can you make three skips?"  He watched as the boy frowned in concentration, aiming carefully.  "It's just that….. well, you know how some of those stones never reach the other side?  You know how they sink instead, how they don't get where they're supposed to go?"_

_The boy eyed him sideways, confused.  "Uhhhh…. Yeah?"_

_Conan flicked another stone across the water; it bounced off the far shore with a triumphant 'clack!'  "He's not an idiot, you know; just tell him the truth and get it over with…" he muttered, eyes on the water._

_Shinichi swallowed.  "Okay.  Toshiro?"  Now he had the boy's attention; his dark, wary eyes were fixed on the teenager's face, and he tilted his head to one side.  "Tell me what?  *What* truth?"_

_The older youth looked down at the soft grass beneath him; he ran his fingers through the blades, stroking them as if soothing some great, green beast.  "When you were---  You said you thought the Bad Man made you hit your head hard on the wall, right?  Back there at the school?  And… and afterwards, you said that your head… stopped hurting, right?"_

_Toshiro nodded slowly.  "It really hurt a lot just before that.  Why?"_

_"Well….. this is kind of hard for me to explain, and I'm not sure I understand it myself, but….. Conan and I, we think we know why you don't hurt now, why you stopped hurting then.  We think you… can't really be hurt anymore."_

_The boy looked at him, perplexed.  "Can't be hurt anymore?"_

_Shinichi tried to summon a smile.  "Yeah.  The Bad Man can't hurt you, *nobody* can….. ever again.  Because, well, if you get, um, killed, you *can't* be hurt anymore, right?"  The words hung heavily in the dark air beside the pond._

_Toshiro looked even more confused than before; his stones dropped from his hands, rattled to the ground.  "Killed?  You mean….. killed like in being dead?"_

_On his other side, Conan closed his eyes for a moment.  When he spoke, his young boy's voice was very gentle.  "We think… that maybe you've become a, well, a sort of ghost, Toshiro-kun.  You know, like in the movies and the manga?  Only not a scary one.  That's what happens to some people when they get killed--- hey, did you ever watch the reruns of Yu Yu Hakusho?  Just like Yuusuke was at the beginning of the series!"  He attempted a reassuring grin at the other boy._

_Toshiro frowned; his words came out slowly now.  "But… if I got made dead… if I got made a ghost… aren't I supposed to be scary?  I don't feel scary--- I don't know how I'm SUPPOSED to feel if I got made dead….."  The words trailed off into silence as he considered the idea._

_Quiet; no sounds but the soft stirring of the breeze overhead, the lapping of water.  No birds chirped, no crickets sang in the bushes.  From the dark water three reflections stared up at the sky, three masks composed of cloud-white features and blank, expressionless holes for eyes.  Any one of them might have been a ghost._

_The boy's lost whisper drifted on the wind:  "I don't know what I'm supposed to do now…. What do ghosts do?"_

_Shinichi and Conan sat in silence, staring at the pond.  And neither one knew what to say, not if their lives had depended on it._

***************************************************

Silence filled Professor Agasa's home like liquid in a cup; it was late, and only the distant ticking of the hall clock disturbed the quiet.  That, and the scribbling of Mouri Kogoro's pen as he jotted down the last of his notes.  "There… that'll do for a start."  The detective spoke softly, not wanting to wake the small figure huddled across the room on the padded bench.

His wife tugged her glasses off and rubbed briefly at her eyes; she was tired, and slightly distraught.  Conan had _not made a late-night return (as she had been hoping for against hope all along), and worry for the young man/young boy was beginning to eat at her nerves._

She watched as her husband stood up stiffly, one hand massaging the small of his back; he looked as tired as she felt.  His dark eyes were shadowed now, and he stretched once, cracking his joints before moving across the room to where their transformed daughter slept in a kitten-like curl of small limbs.  Agasa sprawled in a snoring lump across one of his overstuffed chairs, and Haibara-san had long since gone to bed; but Ran had kept vigil at the window until exhaustion had simply knocked her out.

As Mouri gently began to scoop his small daughter up in his arms, she shifted, murmuring; her drowsy eyes opened, and Eri caught a few words of sleepy protest.  The detective sighed; carefully he lowered her back to the bench again, then reached for his suit jacket to drape it across the diminutive form that curled tighter in sleep.

Rubbing at his own eyes, he moved back to slump on the couch.  "She won't leave, will she?" asked Eri softly, leaning against her husband.  He shook his head, brow furrowed.  "I just don't _understand her sometimes….. she cares so much for that idiot boy; why?"_

Eri chuckled very softly, reaching up one hand to rub at the back of his neck; Mouri sighed, leaning into her hand.  Some of the lines of fatigue on his face relaxed a little.  "She's her own woman, Kogoro….. despite appearances.  She makes her own choices, and she has for years.  You and I may not see a lot in Shinichi--- though personally I think you're short-changing him; I really rather like the boy--- but she does, and that's what's important, ne?"

Mouri sagged against the back of the couch, his hands clasped behind his head.  He grumbled a little, but she could tell that his heart wasn't in it.  "Little brat's not worth half of her…" he muttered, face drawn down in a scowl.  His wife also leaned back, arms behind her head in an identical position.  "No father _ever thinks any boy is worthy of his daughter-- none worth the title of 'father', anyway."  She blinked up at the ceiling, her eyes a little sad.  "You've had to raise Ran-chan without me for most of the past ten years; I know that's been hard… but you've done a good job, Kogoro.  She's turned out to be a wonderful young woman."_

Now it was _his turn to blink at Eri; compliments weren't her style at all.  "Uhhhh..... thanks….."  He cleared his throat, flushing.  "…half the time, I think she thought she was raising __me, though-----"_

Eri chuckled.  "She was.  She did a good job too."  He snorted in annoyance, but a grudging smile hid itself beneath his moustache.

There was a long, relatively peaceful moment of quiet.  Agasa's soft snores had begun to take on thunderous proportions by the time the lawyer spoke next.  "Do you really think we'll be able to find Conan-kun?"  Her words were tentative, filled with a soft worry.

Mouri sighed; he quirked one irritable eyebrow at her, black eyes tired.   "Hrrrmmph.  Depends on whether or not this Nodomo folds under pressure--- or breaks.  If he caves, he'll squeal, and we'll have more to work with; if he breaks, he might go running to Ojiwa….. and then?  No idea, but it won't be good."  He smoothed his moustache in a gesture she had seen many times before, a movement that indicated dubiousness on his part.

She studied his profile as he yawned.  There were so many memories behind them, so many things that rose to the surface when she watched her husband like she was doing right now: past arguments (too many), struggles, good times and bad---  When Kisaki Eri had walked away from her husband and child, she had done so with good reason.  But now, watching him try to think past his weariness, she wondered what her life might've been like had she stayed.

He was such a stubborn, opinionated, pain-in-the-ass of a man.  But he was also a good man; sometimes weak, definitely lazy, occasionally an idiot--- but when he allowed himself to, he could be a very good man indeed.  Right now he was concerning himself over someone who had (in his opinion) screwed up his only daughter's life royally--- and yet his wife had no doubt that, despite his personal feelings, he would do his best to find their missing charge.

Mouri was leaning back against the sofa-pillows now; even as she watched, his eyes were drifting closed.  Not surprising; a little earlier Eri had heard the hallway clock chime 2 a.m.  Her own eyes strayed back to her daughter's sleeping form; so small, so very small--- and how very innocent she looked, her dark hair tumbling in soft waves over her sleep-blushed face.  But that wasn't really the carefree countenance of a true child--- even in sleep, Ran's eyes seemed to tighten with worry and a crease came and went between her fine brows.  Her daughter was murmuring something now, talking in her sleep as she had done since childhood; her mother smiled at old memories and listened closely:

_"…okay…'Nichi-kun d'n't leave me, wait….. 'm coming…..late f'r school, you twit….."_

Eri forced down the lump that seemed to be forming in her throat.  _Shinichi…..  Such a strange young man… how hard it must've been, spending the past year stuck in that peculiar shape, like a ghost of his former self.  Trapped and desperate; hardly anyone around he could talk to about it, just Agasa, that boy from Osaka and the Haibara girl---  Loneliness had broken stronger spirits than __hers before; she wondered how __she would've held up in just such a situation._

Another whisper of sleep-blurred words drifted through the room:  _"…..love you, 'Nichi….." and the woman blinked back sudden tears.  She wondered (not for the first time) if her daughter was stronger than she was.  _

She didn't really want to know.

With a sigh that held as much regret in it as love, Kisaki Eri snuggled a little closer to her husband's slumbering form and closed her eyes.

***************************************************

_They were walking now, the three of them.  Garish lights flickered and danced to either side as signs flashed their cheerful messages into the dark, telegraphing signals meant for many but only seen there by three.  Overhead the Mystery Coaster roared and clacked its way on its endless rounds, the train of cars stopping and starting from their station without benefit of an operator's attention._

_Sometimes Shinichi and Conan wondered who ran the rides._

_Toshiro's eyes were--- well, the best description was *haunted.*  The boy had been silent for the most part during their walk, biting his lip occasionally while he worked out his thoughts.  His two companions had also held their peace, now and then trading troubled looks over his head._

_At last they paused; they were standing before one of the many silent cafés and restaurants that dotted the amusement park.  Shinichi turned to the two boys with him.  "You two want something to eat?  A drink, maybe, or some ice cream?"_

_At that Toshiro perked up; no matter what had happened to him, he still was a kid, after all.  "Ice cream?"  He almost smiled.  "Could I have chocolate?"  Beside him Conan nodded, relieved to feel the sadness in the air lighten a little.  "Sure, 'onii-chan'.  Chocolate for me too, please."_

_With a 'Tell me something I don't know' look on his face, Shinichi smiled wryly at his other self and slipped behind the counter to busy himself with the refrigerators.  It was an odd thing, but the two of them had never found a door barred or a cabinet locked anywhere in their little dreamscape; this wasn't the first time that they had helped themselves to a snack or a soda.  Privately he wondered just what they would do if, someday, they found out that said items (so far considered solely imaginary)actually had turned up *missing* in the real, waking world…..  He shook his head and added quantities of whipped cream all 'round, gathering up the dishes._

_Conan and Toshiro were talking quietly as he walked up, both seated at a table.  The umbrella that centered their tabletop was folded, but Shinichi knew that it was patterned with a cheerful assortment of tropical birds; he and Ran had sat beneath it the last time they had come to Tropical Land, less than two weeks previously, when their world had changed forever._

_"… always thought I'd be scared if I met a ghost, but--- am I s'posed to be scared of me?" Toshiro was saying, his voice subdued.  Beside him Conan chuckled a little wanly and shook his head.  "Nahh… why not just forget about what ghosts are supposed to be like?  I mean, neither of us knows anything about it, so---"  He looked up, his face brightening in relief as Shinichi slid the dishes onto the table.  The next few minutes were filled with the scrapings of plastic spoons against containers and the appreciative sounds of three rather stressed-out people taking a break._

_Ice cream, reflected Conan as he swallowed a bite, couldn't be counted as a cure to all ills--- but it damn sure helped.  Even imaginary ice cream.  He burped; Toshiro giggled._

_At last they all sat back, satisfied.  Shinichi tossed a paper napkin at the two boys; "Here, you two—you look like you ate it without using your hands.  Clean up, okay?"  Conan shot him a dirty look but complied, as did Toshiro._

_"Soooooo…..  What do you want to do next, hm?  Toshiro?"  No reply; the boy had paused in wiping his face and was staring at Shinichi with an arrested look.  "Hey, Toshiro-kun?  What's wrong?"  Across from him he heard his other self suddenly draw in a breath---_

_--- and he felt the familiar, flooding strangeness come over him, the well-known moment of dizzy fading and blurring.  Kudo Shinichi had barely a moment to meet Conan's eyes, to hear Toshiro's startled exclamation before everything went away---_

**_*--- We're waking up---*___**

_Fade to black….._

***************************************************

_…..Black…..  _

It was dark, and he was _awake now; there was the momentary usual confusion as memories shuffled and blended, danced and skittered around each other like marbles during an earthquake before dropping into their proper places.  Then he sighed; two people fractured and reassembled, becoming one again as Conan/Shinichi opened his eyes._

_*Yeah, black.  It's a pretty sorry situation when I have to be dreaming to see any light-----*  With an unvoiced moan, he slid both hands up to cradle his aching skull.  All the discomforts and dull aches of his confinement had been waiting for him, and they had brought __friends with them: thirst, a tingling numbness in his limbs where they had fallen asleep, a throbbing heat somewhere behind his eyes--- it reminded him of how he had felt the last time he had gotten a fever.  He probably had one, then—why not?  __*Just something else to add to the collection,* he thought sourly._

_*Head hurts—damn, damn, damn; it was easier to think when I was unconscious.*_

He shifted his shoulders, trying to bring some relief to his stiff back; his abused throat rewarded him with painful twinges from the movements, making him gasp.  _*Got to be some way of getting out of here--- clear your head, Kudo; now how did you plan to try it?  Oh yeah, my picks--- one of 'em might work as a screwdriver…*  Running small fingertips up the back of the locking mechanism brought him the impression of several tiny screw-heads; if he could just manage to loosen them….._

Fumbling, nerveless fingers tugged the set of picks from his pocket, and Conan thanked the fates that they hadn't fallen out during his earlier scuffle.  _*Let's see…. DAMN, my head hurts--- it's not helping my concentration at all--- knurl-pick, hook, extractor, tensioners….. ball-pick, diamond-pick, rake….. warded picks….. there!  Yeah, maybe this one… now, if I only had some light…..*_

It took long, intense moments of work to loosen the first screw even the slightest--- long moments where the pick slid and wobbled in his fingers, scraped painfully sideways to jab into his palm or the back of one hand.  Conan had to wedge one elbow at a difficult angle to work at all, and the other hand was nearly useless; all it was good for was to steady his other wrist.  At last the first screw dropped silently out to rattle and slide beneath him; he breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief and took a rest, rubbing at his tingling fingers and cramped muscles.  But through the burn of his abused hands the young detective's mind sang with relief: at _last he was __doing something!_

Next screw.  He set to work.

_*Damn tiny things, aren't they?  Should be glad, I guess--- my fingers just aren't that strong; if they had been larger, it might've been a problem…..  There; screw number two.  Good riddance.  Okay, rest now…..*_

He worked steadily, taking long breaks when his small hands trembled too much to be useful.  The picks slid more from weariness than from inaccuracy.  Conan felt beads of sweat beginning to trickle down his neck to pool uncomfortably beneath him; the box was stuffy, close with the moisture of his own breath.  There was no danger of suffocation--- he was well enough aware of that, due to the fetor that crept in and nearly stifled him (he tried not to think of its source)--- but it was _not pleasant._

The third screw slid out.

The fourth…. and he eased the locking mechanism off of its brackets, the coolness of the metal smooth against his scratched skin.  _*Okay, rest a moment; wait for it.  Take a breather, take it easy; it won't go away, that's for sure.*_

_*Please God, don't let the stuff stacked against the drawer be too heavy.  It's gonna be hard, that I know.  If I were pushing upwards it wouldn't be so tough--- but sideways, that'll be difficult.*_

_*Rest.  Lie here and breath.  Rest.*_

_*Breath.  Be glad you're still breathing, even if your head aches.  Some people aren't that lucky.*_

_*……………………………………..*_

 _*Poor kid.  Wish there was something more I could do.*_

_*Never mind, Kudo; just get yourself out of here first--- then you can see what else you can do.  Get out, find Ran and make sure she's safe, make sure the kids are alright… nothing else matters right now, not yet.  Later.*_

_*Later.*_

_*Right now….. let's get OUT of this hellhole.*_

Hissing with the pain of movement, he shifted to wedge himself awkwardly as much on his side as he could, his spine against the file-cabinet's front and his fingertips pressed against the cabinet's back wall.  The inner walls of the drawer only came halfway up in the back, a fact that he was shakily thankful for; escape would have proven impossible without something to gain purchase against.

He _pushed; the drawer shifted---_

--- shifted---

--- half an inch.  No more; it jarred heavily against something with a dull _bump._

**_*Shit.*  He braced himself again, and pushed harder---_**

No movement.  The whatever-it-was didn't budge in the least.

**_*SHIT.__  This is NOT good.  Come on, come on-----*_**

The following long, endless minutes were filled with a regular rhythm of pushing, swearing internally when the deadweight on the other side refused to move, rest, and then more pushing.  Conan's breathing grew ragged as the pounding in his head increased with his efforts; each breath rasped through his damaged throat like a saw, and his muscles began to burn like fire at being pushed far past their small limit.  He was strong for someone his size, but….. 

…..not strong enough.  Not _nearly strong enough._

_*Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!  I have GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!!!*  Red spots were dancing in front of his eyes by now, accompanied by flashes of brilliant light and a distant roaring in his ears; he braced himself and strained one more time, one more time, one more time one more time one more time one more time….._

One more time was, finally, too much for his concussed and aching skull.  His headache grew to blinding proportions---

----- and he felt himself spiraling down, down like water into a drain, down into a blackness much deeper than anything inside his prison as the pounding finally grew too painful to be ignored.  Throbbing and insistent, it blotted out his limited world with agony and the sounds of his own heart beating, driving him away from freedom like the monstrous rhythm of a huge, tyrannical drum.  As Conan slid beneath the waters of true unconsciousness, his last thoughts were of despair:

_*I **failed----- Ran-----***_

***************************************************

Dawn had barely shown itself as the faintest glimmer in the day's eye when a tiny, buzzing sound disturbed what passed for silence in the Agasa residence sleeping quarters.  The small lump buried under the light covers of late Summer stirred, and after a moment groped among the sheets for the disturbing buzz.  It cut off abruptly, and a small hand clutching a pager unit emerged.

Sleepy grey eyes blinked at the tremulous rays of sunlight, then flicked down to the pager; Ai Haibara stretched, a small smile of satisfaction on her face.  Not wanting to disturb (or alert) the house's occupants with a noisy alarm-clock, she had simply 'borrowed' the Professor's personal pager, called a wake-up service with the pager's number and an early hour request, set it on 'vibrate' and tucked it into a pocket.  _*Worked like a charm, too,* mused Ai.  She yawned._

Ten minutes later she was clothed and quite wide awake, slipping silently into the house's main lab and commons room.  Pausing in the doorway to survey the room, she noted with amusement that the Professor had sagged open-mouthed into his usual pattern of snores.  _*He'll have a stiff back when he wakes up, having slept in that chair all night.  Silly man.*   She carefully slipped his glasses from his face and placed them soundlessly on the table beside his propped-up feet._

Mouri Ran still lay curled where she had been left the night before; _*Stubborn, isn't she?  I suppose she sat up as long as she could.*  Her parents would be no trouble--- they were sleeping the sleep of the Just, each leaning against the other on the couch.  Ai knelt beside the other girl, sliding one small hand up to cover her mouth as she gently tapped one shoulder.  Ran's dark eyes slowly opened, vague with sleep; they widened as she took in the face before her.  With a cautioning finger across her lips, Ai moved back out of the way to allow the Mouri girl to wobble past her with commendable quietness._

She busied herself in the kitchen and her own bedroom while Ran dressed, adding an assortment of items to her backpack: a few snacks, a set of small binoculars, a camera, her snub-nosed handgun…..  That last item was removed from the backpack after a moment's secondary consideration; when she slipped on her child-sized shoulder-holster beneath her jacket, she was pleased to note that the small buldge the gun made was scarcely noticeable.

Going unarmed was, of course, unthinkable just now.  She supposed that her levels of paranoia had increased over the previous few months for one reason or another, but--- what was the Western saying?  _'Better safe than sorry.'  Gaijins were full of such sayings.  __'Once bitten, twice shy;' 'The burnt child fears the flame;' 'Look before you leap'….._

What a pity Kudo-kun hadn't taken _that one to heart._

Ai checked the clip on her gun, sliding it neatly into place.  She dropped a second clip into her backpack, shrugged it on and headed downstairs to join Ran, who was waiting impatiently beside the door.

***************************************************

The day had begun in a swirl of rising air-currents, breezy and cool; it had the taste of Autumn in it already, a harbinger of the season that still lay a month or so ahead.

"You know," said Ai conversationally as they crossed a quiet street, "your parents are going to be rather unhappy with you for this."  She glanced to one side as a shopkeeper trudged out onto the sidewalk to set up a folding sign; most of the shops they were passing were just beginning their morning routines; even the earliest wouldn't be open for at least an hour as yet.

Ran shrugged, a defiant look sitting oddly on her young face.  "I left a note on the kitchen table."  She shifted her backpack with a flip of her shoulders and continued walking.

Ai arched one eyebrow.  "Ah; I suppose that should settle everything nicely, then."  She smothered a chuckle as Mouri-chan glanced sharply at her but said nothing for a moment.  The tenseness in the transformed young woman's jawline betrayed her fear and misery; she was obviously worried nearly sick over the missing Kudo.  After they had walked a little further, she spoke again, her words low and fierce.

"I… don't _care if they get mad at me; I really don't.  I don't want them angry, but I… it'll be worth it, anyway.  We __have to find him---"  Ran's voice shook, a slightly panicky note making the tone waver between that of a frantic woman and a frightened child._

Beside her Ai nodded.  "And we will.  We **_will, Mouri-chan."_**

The sidewalks and streets were nearly empty as yet, the usual heavy traffic merely a promise for later hours.  The two young girls walked in silence for a few more moments; then Ran spoke, staring straight ahead.  "I wish….."  Her voice was wistful, barely audible.

"You wish…?" inquired Ai, brushing wind-blown tendrils of tawny hair back from her eyes.

"I wish… there was some way to know if Shinichi--- if Conan-kun is---"  She seemed to quiver.

"Alive?"  Ai smiled slightly at the Mouri girl's soft intake of breath.  "If he has any chance at all, he's alive.  Kudo-kun's ability to survive through adverse conditions is second to none.  I'd worry less about that and more about how we're going to find him."  A faint frown crossed her normally calm face; she tucked her hands in her pockets, staring straight ahead as she walked.

"Ai-chan?"

"Mmm?"

"Why are you so certain we'll find Shi-, I mean, Conan-kun?  Please--- I need to know!  Why?"

Ai blinked, glancing sideways to find Ran's large eyes fixed on hers.  She stopped for a moment, shoving her hands deeper into her pockets.  "I… simply am.  I simply _do."  She snorted briefly.  "Amusing, isn't it?  The scientist asks you to trust her intuition.  But I __do believe we'll find him, and I'm certain he's alive….. somewhere.  As certain as I am that he's thinking about you and worrying about you, Mouri-chan."  For a moment a real smile sparkled somewhere deep in her grey eyes.  "Sinchronicity….. such an interesting phenomenon….." she murmured, beginning to walk forward again.  They only had a couple more blocks to go._

Beside her, Ran let out a deep sigh.  "I'm worried, I can't _HELP but be worried--- but… for some reason, I think you're right.  I hope--- no; no, I __believe you're right."  Her eyes were down-turned towards the sidewalk; they sparkled liquidly, and something fell from them to mark a tiny dark spot on the white concrete below.  Half under her breath, she whispered:  "Damn you, Shinichi, for making me __worry like this…..  Be alright, __please….."_

Ai held her peace.  But after a few more moments…

"Ai-chan?"

"Yes?"

"Shinichi… told me about your sister.  I'm really sorry; it must be hard for you."

Nothing; then, very softly: "Thank you…..  You—were there, weren't you?"

Ran nodded.  "I got there just after she--- Conan was with her when—when she died.  But I guess you know that, don't you?"  She sighed.  "I wish there was something more we could have done.  This Black Organi-"

A hand slapped over her mouth; Ran blinked, then jerked her head back, staring at her companion to see something she had never seen before:

_Terror, flashing bright and instantaneous in the eyes of Haibara Ai, formerly known as Mayano Shiho__.  "Don't speak of them out here!" she hissed; then she seemed to gather her self-control around her again, settling her composure back into place the way a bird settles its feathers.  Ran swallowed once, then nodded._

Ai's fingers slipped inside her jacket momentarily, brushing against her shoulder holster; her thin shoulders relaxed a little, the fear leaving her eyes again.

The rest of the walk was spent in silence.

***************************************************

"---can't _BELIEVE Ran'd pull something like this--- it had to be that Haibara girl--- she---" sputtered Kogoro Mouri, hurriedly pulling on his jacket as he, his wife and Professor Agasa headed for the car at a fast walk.  The three had woken to find their young charges absent, a terse note the only explanation.  Said note had been plain enough; __'I've gone with Ai-chan to try and find Shinichi; please do everything you can to help as well.  Will be back by sunset, if possible.  Love, Ran.'  Simple, direct and to the point._

Totally infuriating, as far as her father was concerned…. but still, very much to the point.  He complained bitterly to the other two until Eri finally lost her temper, rounding on him with a grim look on her face.

"Listen---" she snapped (using what her co-workers would have instantly identified as the Kisaki Shark Attack voice) "--- you can feel as abused and ill-used as you want; go ahead, be my guest!  But IF you want to help your daughter, you can start by cooperating and by _dropping the temper tantrum!  I swear, mornings like this make me remember why I---"_

She stopped, glaring; Mouri attempted to return the glare for a moment or two, and Agasa held his breath.  But the duel of wills finally ended, and the detective wilted gradually under her gaze, drooping; when he spoke again, his voice was a little less belligerent than before.  "I--- well, I just--- Eri, I don't want her to get hurt!  She's off gallivanting across the city with that—that—"  He began to bristle again, and the Professor spoke up quickly.  "Erm—don't underestimate Haibara-kun; she's a highly intelligent young woman, and she seems to have taken a liking to Ran-chan."  

He flushed under the fierce gazes turned in his direction.  "She's very… determined, as well, when she sets her mind to something.  I know you don't, erm, care much for her, ahhhh, _recent actions, but---" he coughed once.  "I doubt you'll need to worry about Ran in Ai's company; she doesn't tend to act rashly."_

Mouri-san snorted in disbelief, muttering darkly under his breath as he swung the car-door shut.  On the driver's side, Eri smiled rather grimly, aware of the oddly comforting weight of the small firearm in her purse.  _*Let's just hope I don't need it…* she thought to herself as she put the car into gear._

***************************************************

"A _handgun?"_

Ai nodded, pulling her jacket back on.  "I thought it appropriate to travel armed.  One never knows when one might need such a thing, after all…..  I have no liking for guns, but they have their place."  She shrugged.

Ran nodded rather dubiously, running a brush through her shower-dampened hair.  A quick wash and change of clothes had improved her spirits a great deal, although she had been more than a little taken aback at seeing Ai's shoulder holster when she had come back down to the living room.

She held up the pendant that the Professor had supplied her with.  "I don't know how to shoot, but I _do have a little something here…..  Agasa-san made it for me."  She clicked up the transparent cover, displaying the crosshairs; Ai nodded approvingly.  "Good; I assume it fires darts like Kudo-kun's watch does?  Excellent."_

The young scientist glanced at the clock on the wall; calm grey eyes moved back to Ran's face, studying her.  "Did you call your friend?"

The other young woman moved restlessly across the room, still brushing her hair.  "She should be here shortly; don't worry, she's taking this seriously.  I know Sonoko's a bit scatterbrained, but when you really _need to, you can count on her….."  Ran's voice trailed off abstractedly as she stopped beside the new computer terminal, running her fingers gently across the keyboard; it responded with a series of barely-audible __click-click-clicks at her touch.  "You called someone while I was in the shower, didn't you?  Who?  Professor Agasa?"_

Ai shook her head, leaning back against the couch cushions with her legs tucked cat-wise beneath her.  "No… I doubt he's home; he's likely out and about with your parents at this point."  She sighed, looking somewhat annoyed but resigned.  "We're going to have to call on _other resources for this matter."_

"Other resources?"  Ran tilted her head to one side, puzzled.

The young scientist crossed her arms in a habitual gesture.  "Mouri-chan…..  Do you have _any idea how tiresome it is, playing the gradeschooler so much of the time?"  A small smile quirked one corner of her mouth.  "I know that Kuno-kun manages well enough, and I imagine you're doing just fine… but it's not to my taste, not at all--- not so long as I remember who I am, what my life before was."  For a fleeting moment the smile faded, and an expression of sadness seemed to sweep across her quiet face, traveling so swiftly that Ran was never quite certain if she had seen it or not.  "If I… were to forget everything, to be truly the child I seem… perhaps that wouldn't be so bad, not really.  But, as it is….."  She shrugged again, purposefully nonchalant._

"So…?"  Ran prompted her with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"So I've developed protective coloration, just as one exotic fish will hide itself within a school of less unusual ones.  If other children are around, drawing attention to themselves as children do--- ah well, then, I don't need to bother so much with playing the child, do I?"

"Oh _no…..  Ai, you didn't….."_

Ai smirked briefly.  "I'm afraid so.  Ayumi-chan, Genta-kun, Mitsuhiko-kun; they should be arriving any minute now."

Ran stared, aghast.  "You called the_ KIDS??  __*Why*??"_

Haibara shrugged for the third time.  "Camouflage, of course…" she said practically.

***************************************************

_Darkness and cold metal; he was aware of these things subliminally, as distant as the sound of wind rattling rooftiles while he slept.  Darkness and cold metal and close confinement; even unmoving, he knew all of these while he lay unconscious under the weight of injury and stress._

_Darkness and cold metal and a faraway voice, calling him back to the amusement park: a frightened voice from a frightened little boy.  ***Conan-kun?  Where ARE you?  Shinichi-oniisan?  Come back, I'm scared!  Conan-kun??***_

_His breathing deepened, slowed a little as his body went even limper than before; and somewhere out in the dark, while his weary brain rested and his aching muscles slowly healed, Conan/Shinichi went searching for the one who needed his help._

Save for his slow breathing, the tiny storage area lay as silent and dark as a tomb.

_*********************************************************************************************************************_

_To Be Continued………._

YSABET'S NOTES:  See?  I didn't kill Conan off……. Not QUITE, anyway……  Many, many thanks to Becky Tailweaver, by the way, for lots of consultation notes on how it feels to have a concussion (stop hitting your head, Becky!); also mucho thankees to the reviewers!  They're just like chocolates, but less fattening.  Send more, and I'll get the next chapter written faster!  The show is heading for the grand finale pretty soon--- hope you like it.  By the way, if I weirded anybody out with this chapter, well--- YOU try and figure out how to tell a kid that he's dead, huh?  Tough work.  Bye!


	9. Hearts and Other Weapons

Sorry this took so long—what with a sick ferret and a sister starting chemo, it's been a rather busy time in Real Life lately.  But here goes-----

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**Second Wind**

**By Ysabet**

**_Chapter 9:  Hearts and Other Weapons_**

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_"Silence is the door between Love and Fear; and on Fear's side, there is no latch."--- Diane Duane, The Door Into Fire_

************************************************

"Dammit….." muttered Hei-san the Janitor as he banged a fist on the front door of his place of work for the seventh time in the past five minutes.  "Idiot security guy _said he'd meet me at the main entrance….."  He shoved his hands in his coverall pockets and leaned back against the brick wall beside the locked door, a scowl on his usually rather deadpan face.  "…got better things to do on a Saturday than hang around __this place….." he mumbled under his breath; brown eyes flashed in annoyance as they noted a half-open window a little ways down from the entrance.  _

With a sigh, Hei shrugged his shoulders and made his way to the window, slipping a couple of tools from one pocket (said tools would have rather surprised Kajiya-san, Security Officer for Beika Elementary, as they were decidedly _not the sort of thing most custodial workers carry around with them).  A little pressure here, a quick twist or two there, and the window latched itself neatly back into place.  He flexed his fingers and chuckled, a young-mannish sound that sat rather at odds with the lined, thin face he presented; noticing this, the janitor cleared his throat and smiled at himself ruefully.  "Not much longer, Hei-san; then you can… retire.  No more Saturday hours for __you, my friend…" he murmured.  This time his chuckle matched his appearance._

A crunching of footsteps on the walk made him turn; nonchalantly he slid the tools back into his pocket, his previous vague irritation slipping back onto his face like a mask.  "Konnichiwa, Kajiya-san; up late last night?" he asked, gruff and slightly sarcastic.

The older man shot him an annoyed look.  "_Don't go there, Hei-san; I spent half my Friday evening dealing with alarms and police reports.  Do you have __anyidea how many individual alarm-codes have to be rekeyed and systems checked in this place when things don't work right?"_

_*Yeah, actually--- exactly twenty-three, not counting individually-installed gizmos, padlocks, the payroll safe-combo and the petty-cash box.  And you really ought to take a look at Finance's lazy lock-up habits while you have the chance, Kajiya-san; I could break in there dead-drunk with one arm tied behind my back and my lockpicks held upside down in my teeth if I wanted to.  Not that I want to, but…..*  He tried to look impressed and concerned as the security officer irately sorted through his bundle of master keys, unlocking the main door with a jerk._

_*…..but it's the principal of the thing, y'know?*_

Their steps echoed through the empty hallway as the disgruntled man continued to grouse.  His complaints had begun to become repetitious by the time they reached his small office, and Hei had to fight off several yawns of boredom as well as sleepiness (it was scarcely past dawn, after all).  

He leaned against the doorjamb, watching his co-worker as he ran through various checks on his computer system.  _*Hmm; I could teach you a shortcut or two, Kajiya-san….. but I don't think that'd be wise.  Maybe I'll tune a few things up today, while I have the chance?  Wouldn't want the kids here to be unsafe, after all…..  Speaking of kids, I wonder how Conan-kun's doing with that little matter?  Sure hope he can handle it--- hell, shouldn't worry; of course he can.  Look at how he took my little 'hint' the other day…!  I probably shouldn't have done that, but I just couldn't resist--- oh man, the look on his FACE, just for a split second there!  Absolutely classic; made my day, really.*  He suppressed a snicker, nodding solemnly at one of Kajiya-san's half-heard gripes._

_*I have the utmost confidence in you, my small detective friend… to ignore the little matter of me and chase after more important stuff, like drug runners and missing kids.  You do have a sense of priority… though when that's all finished, well, I imagine you'll want to spend a little quality time on MY case, won't you?  Heh; that'll be fun!  C'mon, Kudo, wanna play?*  A momentary grin flickered across his face, sharp with anticipation and real enjoyment; then it faded back into Hei-san's usual bland vagueness._

_*First things first, though…..  Wonder why the damned windows keep popping open?  If it's a thief, he's not taking anything Security-Sama here can figure out, and frankly I'm getting tired of hauling MY butt out here at all hours…..  I mean, I could do this sort of thing if I felt like it; but what's the point?  If it's a joke, it's not making anyone laugh; if it's a heist, it's a hell of a peculiar one.  And if it's not a joke and not a heist, what in the world IS it?*_

Kajiya finished his grousing and his checkups at about the same time; he booted out of his system with a sigh, tossing his checklist onto a pile of similarly-marked papers and leaning back in his groaning swivel-chair.  The springs creaked under his weight (he was a rather large man).  "You ready to go, Hei-san?.....  Uhh, do you really need me with you?  I mean, if you _don't---"  He yawned significantly._

Hei-san smiled, a small twitch of his lips.  _*Meaning "If you don't, I'll just kick back and take a nap right here, okay?"  Far be it from me to dissuade a security-type from dropping his guard for a bit--- it's probably against Union Rules or something.*  "That's fine; I can take care of resetting the windows, no problem.  Got a floor-plan right here."  He fished a well-creased page of paper from one pocket and waved it vaguely at the other man._

"Floor-plan--?  Oh yeah, I keep forgetting, you haven't been here long, have you?  What's it been, a month?  Well, whatever, that's fine….."  Kajiya yawned again, settling back in his chair; he tugged his cap down over his eyes, crossing his ankles and lacing his hands behind his head.  "You go right ahead.  Wake me when you're finished, okay?  Arigato….."  The last word trailed off into a third yawn.

_*That's Kajiya-san for you--- Diligent, Dedicated and Efficient!  Actually, he's pretty good at what he does… for an Elementary School security officer.  And that's just fine with Yours Truly.*  The janitor closed the door quietly behind him as the first faint snore arose._

_*Now….. let's tackle those windows.  And maybe we can figure out why the buggers keep popping open like that in the process.  Who knows?  Might be something we can use later…..*_

* * *

_Two hours later….._

….. a very puzzled Hei-san sat in the deserted Teacher's lounge nearest to the Cafeteria, frowning over his cup of tea.  He was _not a particularly happy man.  It was a very rare thing indeed for something to stump him for more than a few minutes, but this-----_

----- this had him _beat._

_*I don't get it.  I just don't get it.  There aren't any devices, no wires, no strings, no drilled-out spots where spring-rods could be inserted, no markings from pinpoint explosives, no sonics, no magnetic plates other than the usual alarm sensors, not one goddamn THING to explain this.  Nothing.  They just… open.  ALL of 'em--- except one, that is.  And that one's in one of the only two rooms I'm supposed to leave alone in the whole freaking school, Storage Room 3-B and Ojiwa-Baka-Sensei's office.  Hell, it's only a foot tall and a couple of feet wide, just a transom… but every other window in the place popped itself open last night, and the night before, and a couple of nights before that, and---*_

Hei sighed; his fingers fairly _itched to open the lock on that storage room---_

He glanced around the empty lounge; _*Nobody here but us chickens… now's as good a time as any, I guess.  'Carpe Diem', y'know-- and isn't THAT a suitable motto for me, hmmm?*  The Janitor grinned to himself, a grin that his co-workers would've found quite out-of-place on his vague countenance.  Stretching, he rose to his feet, striding determinedly out the door towards his destination._

_STORAGE-3B._

Hei-san smirked up at the sign from where he knelt in front of the knob, picks in hand.  _*Bet good ole' Ojiwa-sensei has a coronary when he hears I jimmied the lock--- or should I tell him?  Maybe I should just take an impression and make a key of my own.  Wouldn't THAT pop his cork!  But why bother?  It's not like I'm gonna be here that much longer, can't take much more leave from school without catching trouble--- once Short Stuff figures out this little puzzle, I am outta here, so…..  Oh, what the hell.  Let's just open the damned door.*_

He reached for the knob, ready to insert the first pick---

"Hei-san?  Are you down there?"  The voice of Beika Elementary's security officer echoed through the empty hall, making the Janitor swear under his breath.  Hurriedly he pocketed his picks and stood, dusting off his knees.  "Yeah, over by the door; I was just locking up…..  Have a nice nap?"

Kajiya grumbled at him good-naturedly, yawning and scratching at his hair with one hand.  "Don't be a smartass, Hei-san.  Did you finish with the windows?"

The Janitor sighed, casting a longing look over his shoulder towards the door of STORAGE-3B, which sat inviolate and locked, seeming to mock him with its solidness.  "Yeah… I guess I've done everything I can do today…..  Let's go."

_*Ah, hell.  Tomorrow maybe, or the next day.  It won't kill me to wait.*_

And they walked away, leaving the storage room behind.

************************************************

Ayumi _yaaaaawned_, stretching her arms above her head as she padded into her apartment's kitchen.  Okaa-san was already up despite the earliness of the hour, and the smells of breakfast made the little girl peer around her mother inquisitively as she hugged her.  "Ohayo, Okaa-san!"

The woman smiled down at her daughter; "Good morning to you too, 'Yumi-chan.  Ayumi?  Who was that on the phone a few minutes ago--?"

"Ai-kun--- she's back from her trip, and we're going to go play in the park, she said."  Ayumi yawned again, trying to see past the woman's tall form to the top of the stove.  "Is breakfast ready yet, Okaa-san?  I'm _hungry!_"

"You're always hungry, 'Yumi-chan…but no, not yet.  Just a few minutes, though."  Okaa-san stirred something that smelled delicious with a wooden spoon.  "So where did Ai-kun go, did she say?  Did she have a good time?  Such a quiet little girl….."

Her daughter nodded, wandering into the living room to flop on her stomach on the couch.  "Ummm, she said _something_ about going to the beach… I _think_ maybe she went to see her cousins there or something, but I think she's glad to be back."  The little girl kicked off her house-scuffs, allowing the shoes to drop to the floor as she propped up her chin on her hands.

"Oh?  Why do you think that, Ayumi-chan?"

"'Cause she said that me and Mitsuhiko and Genta-kun are needed to help somebody… and then she laughed and said that it's nice to be needed."  The child sat up after a moment, a slight frown wrinkling her forehead.  "She said… _Conan-kun_ needs us."  She glanced up at her mother, whose attention was still on the breakfast she was making.  "Umm.  Be right back, Okaa-san…"  Sliding off the couch, Ayumi trotted down the hall back to her room, still frowning a little.

From her bedside table, the child took something small and surprisingly heavy, pinning it carefully on the front of her jumper; the Detective Boys badge glinted in the early morning sunlight.  She ran careful, little-girl fingers over the treasured badge and her frown deepened.  

_"Conan."_  She whispered her best friend's name aloud.  "I had a bad dream about you last night….."  For a moment she could almost remember it--- something to do with roller-coasters, scary dark rooms and _boxes….._

But she couldn't--- quite--- reach the memory; it hovered tantalizingly beyond her grasp.

_*Oh well; I'll just tell Conan about it when I see him; maybe he'll know how to make me remember.  He knows everything.*_  Making certain that the catch was secure, she hurried out of her room and back to breakfast.  It was almost time to meet the other kids; bad dreams could wait 'til later.

************************************************

Kisaki Eri eyed her husband as he took a long drink of the third cup of coffee he'd had since waking; she admitted a certain need for caffeine herself this early, but she'd have to keep a close watch on Mouri Kogoro.  He was beginning to… twitch.

They sat in a small Western-style coffeeshop a little ways down from Nodomo Hiroku's apartment building; it was an excellent place for a stakeout--- a place to be just an anonymous onlooker, one of the many who stopped in for a cup or two and maybe a quick bite.  

The woman smiled wryly to herself as she swirled the dregs of her own coffee around the bottom of her cup; this was _not_ how she had hoped to spend her weekend.  Things between her formerly-estranged husband and herself had been progressing nicely, and well--- but never mind.  This was more important than a date.

_*A date….. with my own husband.  How long has it been since I indulged in that sort of thing?*_  Her eyes softened as she watched him; despite late-night crankiness, morning caffeine jitters and a certain disgruntledness about the whole situation, Kogoro's eyes were fixed upon their quarry's home.  He might have his faults, but when he said he'd do something he _did_ it, like it or not.

(Of course, she thought with an internal sigh, he had to make certain that absolutely *everyone* knew just how put-upon he felt, how ill-used and overworked and…..)

Eri sighed, a reluctant smile still curving her lips.  She swallowed the last of her coffee, savoring the bitter and sweet tastes together with her eyes resting on her husband's profile.  As Agasa came back towards the table bearing his own mug of coffee, she stood, stretching, to go for another; she had the feeling that she would need it.

* * *

Agasa-san arranged his rather bulky self on his chair with a sigh; he leaned forward, inhaling the steam from his cup (it was decaf--- Ai-kun had informed him some time previously that regular coffee was, to put it bluntly, _off-limits_ for him if he wished to keep his health; she had then silently handed over a printout containing statistics regarding caffeine-related ailments in men over fifty years of age.)  

He stirred the liquid (black, no sugar) with one of the tiny, near-useless sticks provided by the coffee shop, wondering idly for the thousandth time _why_ the blazes they didn't redesign said sticks into something more efficient for stirring.  His bushy grey brows drew down in a worried crease as he speculated again on just _where_ Shinichi had gotten to this time and what kind of fix had he gotten himself into…..  

The boy was appallingly good at finding trouble—even if it meant that he had to trip right over it.  At this rate, he would *never* get the chance to grow up a second time.  The scientist frowned down into the depths of his cup, stirring it aimlessly again and peering into his own reflection as if looking for answers.

* * *

Mouri Kogoro took one last swallow from his cup, grimacing at the taste.  He had never really cared for coffee that much—he'd prefer a beer anytime.  But hey, he was the Famous Detective Mouri Kogoro, right?  And detectives drank coffee; you saw it in _all_ the movies.

He squinted through the window towards Nodomo's apartment-house, feeling a little like a cat in front of a mousehole.  Stakeouts always made him feel that way: the hunter, waiting for his prey to make a move.  And it damn sure beat taking pictures for divorce cases, didn't it?  Even if this stakeout _was_ for that little smartass, Kudo…..

He wasn't quite sure how he felt about Kudo yet.  He had found (much to his horror) that he had developed a certain affection for the brat over the past year; of course, that had been for _Conan_, not for the teenager that his father's instincts had warned him about regarding his daughter…..  If he had EVER caught Kudo trying to put any moves over on Ran, he'd have---

Well, that was a moot point _now,_ wasn't it?  And he had damn well better get used to the idea of Kudo as a son-in-law--- Ole' Kogoro wasn't stupid, he could see the way the wind was blowing.

Mouri growled to himself beneath his moustache.  _*Goddamn little brat better be all right—If he gets himself killed and breaks Ran's heart, I swear I'll--- I'll---*_

Well, he'd sure as hell think of something, that's what.  In the meantime, he needed another cup of coffee.

************************************************

Ran sat at the window, waiting.  The early breeze sent strands of her dark hair drifting across her heart-shaped face, floating like the finest of veils.

She was, she thought unhappily, _good_ at waiting.  Hadn't she just spent a year waiting for Shinichi to come back to her, only to find that he had been there all along?  And now he had slipped away again---

_*Shinichi… why didn't you take me with you yesterday evening to do whatever you were doing?  Were you trying to protect me again?  Stupid; you're always trying to protect me… all this past year you've been trying to protect me… and now-----*_

_*Stupid, stupid, stupid-----  Please be okay.*_

And all the while a tiny little voice in the back of her mind kept whispering _hurry, hurry, hurry….._

Waiting was hard.  Waiting while knowing that somebody you cared for might be hurt, might even be _(*don't think it Ran, don't think it*)…_ that was the hardest of all.

Her fingernails dug into the windowsill where she sat, staring down at the street below; though her eyes were turned towards the passing cars, they were focused inwards on a face that kept changing in her mind from a young boy's to a young man's….. 

_*Shinichi--- please be okay, wherever you are; hang on, I'm coming; we're coming…..*_

A screech from the curbside below the Mouri Detective Agency announced the arrival of Suzuki Sonoko as her cab pulled away; for once she was on time.  One of the two small faces watching her from the second-story window as she crossed the street turned to the other.

"She certainly looks… determined…" noted Haibara Ai, indicating the new arrival's rather set expression; beside her, Ran nodded.  "I suppose she's just glad she can _do_ something; this, um, 'lifestyle change' of mine sort of hit her hard, you know?"  

The dark-haired young girl was silent for a moment, watching her friend as she stepped up onto the sidewalk.  Her thin shoulders were tense, and the worried expression she wore sat oddly on a face better suited to sunlight than shadow.  She spoke quietly, her hands twisting together in her lap. "Sonoko's always been such a good friend to me; I think… that she was afraid that this would take our friendship away or something like that.  She has a lot of friends, but not a lot of _close_ friends, and when she found out about Shinichi and I….. I was really sort of glad."  She chuckled wanly, dark eyes distant and full of memory.  _"He_ wasn't so thrilled about it, but….."  

_*hurry, hurry, hurry…..  Shinichi…..*_

Ai smiled to herself as well.  "I can imagine."  She shifted restlessly as the clatter of footsteps running up the stairs ended in the sound of knocking.  "You've told her about me, I believe?"

The other girl nodded.  "A little, yes.  She was surprised--- but not that surprised, actually."  Ran moved across the room towards the door while Ai considered her statement.  

_*Really?  Perhaps the Suzuki girl has more to her than I thought…?*_

"Ran!"  Suzuki Sonoko tearfully threw her arms around her friend's small form, stooping a little; nonetheless, in her enthusiasm she managed to squash Ran's face against her waist and lift her slightly off the floor, resulting in a muffled "MMPH!! Pft-mmfh-_dwnmpf,_ Snnhwkmph!" from her target.

Ai moved unobtrusively so that a chair was between her and the Suzuki girl.  _*Then again, perhaps not.*_  Anomalies happened in nature all the time, after all.

Ran was now straightening her clothing and hair, and Sonoko (looking rather startled at the results of her impromptu embrace) was apologizing.  "---didn't _know_ I could pick you up like that, but Ran-chan, you're so _small_ now-----"

The Mouri girl sighed.  "Never mind, Sonoko; just please don't do it again, okay?  Listen now, I'll fill you in on what's happened while we wait for the kids---"

At about this point Sonoko noticed their audience, still standing quietly by the window.  "Um, Ra—_Rin_-kun, speaking of kids….."

Ai crossed her arms, one corner of her mouth turning up rather sardonically.  She did not bother with a childlike expression (not that she did such a thing often, anyway), but instead focused her calm regard on the blonde young woman's face.  Dawning understanding and remembrance slowly crossed Sonoko's countenance; she swallowed.  "I remember… you're that woman that made the capsule, right?  The one that used to belong to the, umm, Black Organization?"  As she mentioned the crime syndicate her voice unconsciously dropped and she sat down on the couch; Ran climbed up beside her.

"I am--- though I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention _that_ group of people again, at least not in public."  The diminutive scientist frowned a little as she looked up at Sonoko; her tone took on a slight coldness as she addressed the young woman.  "You do realize that you've put yourself in danger by merely associating with us, don't you?"

Sonoko shrugged, crossing her arms in defiant mimicry of the small figure confronting her.  "I'm not going to stop being Ran's friend just because she's been--- well--- _downsized."_  (Ran blinked at this.)  "Besides, what would you expect me to do?  Just say 'Oh, well, have a nice life, have fun at grade-school and watch out for guys in black trenchcoats', hmm?"  She frowned a little down at the girl.  "She's my friend, that little twerp Shinichi is my friend--- and I _don't run out_ on friends."  Her chin jutted out stubbornly.

Ai's calm grey eyes surveyed her coolly.  "Fine.  Just keep in mind that _one slip_ in the right company could spell disaster for us all—yourself included."  She turned back to her vigil at the window.

Behind her back Sonoko turned to Ran.  "Is she always this pleasant, or do I rate special treatment?  Sheesh, what a little pain!"  She snorted quietly; then her face became graver as she took in her friend's distressed expression.  "It's bad, isn't it?  Tell me what's going on, please?"

The little girl beside her closed her eyes for a moment, fighting for control; her small fists tightened in her lap, white-knuckled.  "Shinichi….. he didn't come home last night; he didn't show up at the Professor's, he didn't call….. nothing."  

Ran drew a deep breath; when she spoke again tears muted her soft, childish tones and lowered the pitch until it sounded startlingly like her old voice.  "We're afraid—we're afraid that he's been hurt, or, or-----  Sonoko-kun, we've been investigating this missing kid at school, and now _he's_ missing, and----- _We've got to find him, _Sonoko!"

_*hurry, hurry, hurry…..*_

Her friend caught her by both thin shoulders, her adult's hands resting gently on Ran's slender frame.  "We will—we will!  Calm down now, tell me everything….."  She shook her gently.  "It's not like you to get so rattled; that's more _my_ line, ne?"  Sonoko's rather lame attempt at humor did little more than halt the onset of tears, but Ran wiped at her eyes and made an attempt to steady her breathing.  "W-when he didn't show up last night, I waited at the Professor's and after a while I called home to see if he had shown up there, but he---"

A clatter of footfalls on the steps below interrupted the explanation, heralding the arrival of several rather small reinforcements.  Across the room Ai slid down from her seat by the window, moving to the door to greet Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko.  Ran and Sonoko paused to watch the scene as the three children chattered brightly at their friend, asking her how her trip to the beach had been, had she had fun, did she go swimming, did she---

Ai cut the flow of talk off with a quick shake of her head.  "We can talk about that later; right now, we have something more important to do."  Her voice was matter-of-fact and rather stern; the three children quieted down in the face of her seriousness.

Watching with an odd sense of detachment, Ran found herself wondering at Ai's behavior and attitude.  They spoke to her as if she were a child like them—after all, what reason did they have to believe her otherwise?  But Ai spoke to them as directly as she would have an adult, with no change in tone whatsoever.

_*I wonder… is it easier for her to deal with the kids than with adults?  Considering the type of environment she grew up in, just about everyone is alien to her—but maybe children are less stressful for her because they don't demand that she act a certain way; they just accept her as she is.*_

Ai was explaining the situation; three small, serious faces listened intently.  Beside Ran, Sonoko shivered.  "Do you—do you think this Toshiro is still alive?" she asked in a low voice.  Ran said nothing, but shook her head very, very slightly; her friend bit her lip, her usually flippant expression replaced by grimness.

"--- and we need to find him _quickly_, before Ojiwa-sensei is frightened into leaving or doing something desperate."  Ai finished her summary, folding her arms and settling back onto the couch with the children to either side.  There was a brief silence as three young minds considered her words; Ayumi was the first to speak.

"Rin-kun….."  The gradeschooler slid down off the couch, moving over to stand before her new friend; Ran stared into her wide, earnest little-girl eyes--- and was astonished when the child impulsively hugged her tightly.  "We'll find Conan-kun, _really_ we will!  He's smart, too—most of the time, anyway.  Sometimes he can be awfully stupid, and that's when he gets himself into trouble… but if he _is_ in trouble he'll be trying to get away, right?"  Behind her Genta and Mitsuhiko chimed in with their enthusiastic agreement.  "Please don't worry, Rin-kun; we'll find him."  She hugged her again, and Ran hugged her back, startled into tears that she quickly wiped away.  

_*hurry, hurry, hurry…..  We will, Shinichi, I **promise…..***_

Past Ayumi's shoulder she could see Ai, who smiled faintly.  "Didn't I say the same thing?  Conan is quite… resourceful.  Trust him to do his best, while _we_ do ours."

Sonoko eyed the small blonde girl with misgivings.  "That's just fine, but what'll we do?  The day's not getting any longer….."

Haibara Ai spared her a cool glance.  "I've an idea or two, I think…..  To begin with, we need to know our enemy's position."

Emerging from Ayumi's hug, Ran viewed her with the beginnings of hope.  "Position?"

The young scientist nodded, already reaching for her jacket.  "Exactly.  I believe the first step should be surveillance."  She looked up at Sonoko, calm grey eyes assessing.  "Tell me, Sonoko-neesan….. have you any practice in what's usually called a 'stakeout'?"

The teenager looked slightly taken aback; then she smirked down at the transformed young woman.  "Well….. I can tell you the habits, class schedules, favorite foods and routes home of at _least_ the ten best-looking guys in my school; does that qualify?"

************************************************

_They could hear the sounds that had called them as well as the sound of their footsteps before they could see anything; sound bowed its way onto the stage while sight was still waiting in the wings.  Two sets of sneakers slapped almost inaudibly against asphalt, kicked the occasional pebble aside as vision slowly, slowly cleared and the world came back.  _

_A__ world, anyway._

_"You know, this is getting old…..."  Conan scowled down at the pavement below, shoving his hands hard into his pockets.  He glanced up at the tall figure beside him.  "I mean, fine, it's better than lying in a cold metal box with a head that feels like somebody used it as a soccer ball, but--- "_

_Shinichi snorted, running one hand through his rumpled hair.  In the parking lot's half-light he looked tired and pale.  "You don't have to tell me that, pipsqueak.  I am WAY ready to get out of here… and I wanted to stay awake, but--- well, shit; the box won't open, we're too damn small….. and….."_

_His other self grimaced.  "I know, I know; I heard him too.  Poor Toshiro-kun; the kid's just about at the end of his rope, isn't he?"_

_The older youth shook his head somberly.  "Not at the *end* of it, no… he sort of went past that stage a few days ago, I guess….."  They walked on in silence for a few minutes, passing the empty gate-turnstiles.  Conan shot the darkened ticket-booths an ironic glance; "Sorry, guys, we've got a lifetime pass….." he murmured._

_As they wound through the paths leading them deeper into the maze of the amusement park, the sounds that had drawn them there began to become a little louder, a little clearer: soft whimpering just short of sobbing, a small voice that cried out forlornly through the dark:_

_"…..Conan-kun?..... Shinichi-niisan?.....  Where are you?.....  PLEASE don't leave me here alone….."_

_The two figures looked at each other, pain identical in their eyes; how could you *not* hurt to hear something so pathetic, so sad and lonely and lost?  Shinichi peered through the shadows, spinning around in an effort to locate the source, while beside him Conan hopped up onto a bench to look as well.  After a moment the boy pointed silently towards a small copse of bushes beside the ornamental pond:  "There."_

_Toshiro was huddled deep within the leaves as if seeking warmth from the greenery; his knees were drawn up, and his small, woebegone face glimmered with tears and was smeared with dirt.  At the sight of his two friends, his pale face lit up like a lantern and he scrambled out in a flurry of leaf-litter.  "You came BACK!  I thought—" sniff "—you were gonna leave me here all alone for GOOD!"_

_Shinichi laughed (it sounded a little forced to his own ears), reaching out to fish a dry leaf from the boy's tangled hair as he knelt before the gradeschooler.  "Nahhh, we wouldn't do that; we just sort of had to… ummm, well, we….."_

_He looked at his other self, who stared back in equal confusion and exasperation.  How were they supposed to explain their own situation—the dreamscape and their 'twinning' and everything—when they didn't really understand it themselves?  "We, well, we sort of… had to leave.  Y'see, Toshiro-kun, this place—" and Shinichi gestured around with one hand, "—it's not exactly a place, not really…..  We're not sure, but it's more like where you go when you dream.  And we woke up, so we had to go."  He sighed._

_The boy wrinkled his brow and stared back, perplexed; he rubbed at the bridge of his nose, leaving a dusty streak across the pale skin.  "A… where you go when you *dream*??  But---"  He looked around the park, staring at the Merry-Go-Round, the pond, the shooting gallery; he blinked at the lights and turned his head to watch as a train of empty cars on the Mystery Coaster's tracks clattered by in the distance._

_Conan also sighed, shaking his head.  "Never mind, Toshiro-kun; it's not really important.  What IS important is that--- back in the, uhh, the 'real' world--- we're in trouble… my niisan and me.  We're stuck in the same room you keep finding yourself stuck in, and if we don't get out soon…..  Well, we just need to get out, that's all; we don't want to be stuck there any more than you do!"  He offered the child a rather wan smile, hoping that he'd drop the subject of the 'dream' world._

_*However the hell did I ever end up in this fix, anyway?  Explaining dreams to a ghost---  Welcome to the Twilight Zone, Kudo; that creepy guy that always does the voiceovers (what's his name? Stiringu-san or something like that?) should be arriving any time now…..  C'mon, Toshiro, let it go, okay?  Please?  Before you realize that we don't have the foggiest clue about this whole deal.*_

_But Toshiro wasn't stupid.  Doggedly he returned to the interesting idea of just *where* they were.  "I still don't understand… how can this place be not real?  Look, it's---"  He knelt down, gathering a handful of pond-damp mud from the bank.  "This is real dirt—it's making my fingers dirty, and it's cold and wet!  How can it be not real?"  He picked up a pebble and tossed it into the pond; the faint splash echoed loudly in the quiet park.  "That's real water, and that was a real rock, and we ate real ice-cream before you left, and---"  Toshiro's expression was stubborn._

_His two companions traded slightly bewildered glances; then the smaller shook his head, half-laughing.  "I dunno, Toshiro-kun; maybe there's more than one kind of 'real'?  It doesn't matter, anyway; what DOES matter is getting out of here and back to where we can find help."_

_Conan wandered a little further down the path, heading towards the arcade; he found the brightly-blinking lights oddly soothing, their patterns a good background for thought.  The other two followed, Shinichi still looking rather bemused and Toshiro still just the smallest bit stubborn and sulky.  His lower lip stuck out a little as he kicked at a fallen cluster of leaves.  "THESE look awfully real….."_

_Conan rolled his eyes._

_They walked on in silence for a little longer, then stopped while Toshiro got himself a drink from a handy water-fountain.  The child wiped his mouth and grinned triumphantly up at Shinichi.  "THIS tastes pretty real, too….."_

_The young man laughed wryly; he bent his head to take a drink himself while Conan hopped up to sit on the top rail of the fence outside the arcade.  Shinichi leaned back against the rail beside him, tilting his head back to look up at the sky; it hung above them in a featureless bowl of black, unclouded and starless.  "Yeah, it does.  Sure wish we had a real car so we could drive out of this place….. not that that'd work, but….."_

_Impressed, the child stared up at him.  "You can *drive*?  Where'd you learn to drive?  And why wouldn't it work?"  He clambered up to sit on the railing beside Conan, who scooted over a little to give him room._

_Shinichi scowled.  "Well--- just trust me, okay?  It wouldn't; we're kinda off the map here."  He quirked one eyebrow at the boy.  "No buses, no cars, no nothing….. the only way we've ever been able to come and go here is by--- well, you saw."_

_There was a long moment of quiet as the three sat there, thinking.  After a bit Toshiro looked over at his companions; the freckles on his face stood out sharply against his pallor.  "Shinichi-niisan?"_

_"Hmm?"_

_The boy drew in a deep breath.  "I think… maybe **I could get out of here….."  Conan's head jerked up from where he had been staring at his shoes.  Shinichi blinked.  "Uh… how?"**_

_Toshiro looked uncertain.  "Well--- I got here because—because I wanted to find Conan; remember, I said that sometimes I just do things like that now?  I s'pose it's because I got killed and all that---"_

_"--- right, right---" Shinichi said hurriedly; it made his head hurt to think about THAT little subject too hard.  Beside him he heard a very quiet, rather unhappy snort._

_"—and… if I got here because I wanted to, why can't I *leave* because I want to?"  He brightened a little more.  "And maybe I could even take you with me!"_

_Both Conan and Shinichi's jaws dropped; their eyes met in identical astonished thought:  *Go WITH him?!?  Can we even DO that?*_

_The older of the two detectives spoke up hurriedly.  "Um, Toshiro-kun….. I don't know if that'd be such a good idea.  Hey—can't you go for help alone?  You could go find Ra—uh, I mean Rin-kun; she saw you, remember?"  He tried to put as much enthusiasm and encouragement into his tone as he could; this might be their only chance to summon help….._

_But Toshiro shook his head vemenently.  "UH-uh; I've been alone so much—I don't WANNA go alone!"  He sniffed hard and wiped at his nose with the back of one hand.  "You come with me!"  And with that he jumped down from the railing and grabbed Shinichi's hand, tugging hard.  For a moment the young detective felt a strange, pulling sensation, as if the world were going thin and stretched-----_

_"Hey, hang on, hang on a minute, kid!  Give me and Conan-kun a minute to talk about this, okay?"  Hurriedly Shinichi jerked his hand from the boy's grip, sweating just a little (it had felt so damned *weird*---).  _

_Toshiro's lip trembled; the boy looked scared.  "You… won't go away and leave me again, will you?"_

_Conan shook his head.  "Promise—we'll be right over here, talking.  You just wait there for a sec, okay?"  Before the child could protest he grabbed his other self's hand and pulled him to one side of the arcade, towards the back lot._

_"Listen," he said hurriedly, speaking in low tones; frowning, the taller boy leaned down a little.  "This may be our only chance!  Yeah, yeah, I know… I'm talking about going places with a *ghost*, and I've--" _

_"—you've got rocks in your head, that's what you've got.  Are you out of your mind?" demanded Kudo Shinichi, staring him in the eye with an appalled look.  "We're the SAME PERSON, or have you forgotten that little fact?"  He shook his head in exasperation.  "Think about it, Genius; if one of us left, it might kill us in the real world!  Hell, we wouldn't have a body to wake up in—we'd end up *really* leaving with Toshiro!  Or haunting that goddamn storage room for the rest of eternity--- no Ran, no Rin, no second chances, just a small room with bunch of dusty boxes and our body in one of them--- if that's not the stupidest thing I've ever heard-----"_

_"Stop."  The boy drew himself up to his diminutive bespectacled height and glared at Shinichi.  "Tell me something: What's my name?"_

_"Huh?  Don't be an idiot--- Edogawa Conan, of course.  Now what---"_

_Conan cut him off.  "And just who am I, actually?  I mean, **really?"**_

_Shinichi frowned.  "You're… me.  Kudo Shinichi."_

_A slight smirk crossed the boy's face; he fought to keep it straight.  "So, TELL me, oh Great Detective… just **who are you calling stupid here?"  He gave the older version of himself a moment to think about that; from the dumbfounded look on Shinichi's face, the thoughts weren't pleasant.  "Can't you trust yourself to think things through?  I mean, if you're me and I'm you, but we're *separate*, then one of us can stay behind while the other goes; it's not exactly like we're a split personality—there's two of us, not one."  He grinned, putting on a show of confidence (somewhat more, actually, than he felt in his heart of hearts).  "Got it?"**_

_"Uh. Got it, I guess….. but I don't have to like it, do I?"  Two identical sets of dark blue eyes turned towards the small figure waiting impatiently over by the arcade fence; he was playing idly with his gold half-coin now, tossing it in the air and catching it.  Toshiro looked solid, looked *alive*-- but they knew better._

_All they had to do was remember a pathetic wooden crate  in Storage 3B; that was enough._

_The boy and the young man turned back towards each other, swallowing hard.  "So…" said Conan tentatively; "… which one of us goes?"_

_Shinichi opened his mouth, then shut it with a click; a curiously contemplative look crossed his face for a moment.  Then he grinned and pulled something shiny from his pocket.  "Coin-flip'll do the trick.  Heads!"  The boy made a sour face at him but responded with "Tails….." as he sent the coin spinning skywards with an agile snap of his fingers.  From his place by the fence Toshiro watched with interest._

_The coin landed on the sidewalk, spinning like a top; "Heads it is….." announced the older detective with a rather nervous laugh; "Guess I'm the guinea pig today."  He glanced down at Conan, who (now that departure was actually imminent) looked slightly worried.  "You gonna be okay here alone?"_

_His younger self scowled up at him.  "As okay as you would be."  *Which,* he added to himself, *isn't much of a consolation, now that I think about it…..*_

_Pocketing his coin quickly, Shinichi walked back towards the gradeschooler, who had decided to amuse himself by now by attempting to hang by his knees from the railing.  Toshiro's upside-down face blinked up at him.  "Niisan?"_

_The young man knelt before the boy, his eyes a little apprehensive.  "Toshiro-kun, are you sure you know how to do this?"_

_The gradeschooler frowned as he placed his hands on the grass, tumbling forward to sprawl in small-kid fashion at Shinichi's feet.  "I THINK so….. it was easy, getting here; I just sort of wanted to go, so I went."  He dusted off the seat of his pants as he rose to his feet; Conan grinned a slightly lopsided grin at the boy—he had leaves in his hair and a smear of dust across his face.  It was so hard to think of him as a spirit, even if you believed in that sort of stuff.  Spirits just didn't get dirty, or eat ice-cream, or skip stones._

_At least, he hadn't *thought* they did.  Go figure….._

_The child gave his palms a final wipe against the sides of his pants and reached up to hold Shinichi's larger hand in a tight grasp; he took a deep breath, screwed up his face in concentration, and said "Here goes….."_

_Shinichi's stomach seemed to flip; he had time to give his alter-ego a single wide-eyed glance as the small hand in his suddenly grew freezing cold---_

_--- and they were **gone.  Just gone, like a candle going out in the wind.  A few leaves that Toshiro had missed removing from his hair drifted to the ground.**_

_Conan **stared.**_

_Then, very quietly, he turned away to walk back through the bushes and slightly overgrown grass to a certain place, back away from everything else—a place beside a wall behind the arcade, a place where once (a year past) a young man had become a boy all over again.  Resting on the ground with his arms clasped around his knees Edogawa Conan sighed once, then made himself as comfortable as possible; wondering if a person could doze off from boredom during a dream, he leaned back and tried to be patient—_

_-- until, that is, a certain thought struck him.  The young detective's eyes grew wide with realization, then with utter outrage; his jaw dropped….._

**_"Aaaaaaaaargh!!!"_**

_"GodDAMMIT--- I can't **believe he'd stoop to--- Oh man, that bastard used his DOUBLE-SIDED COIN!!  He ****CHEATED!! That *utter,* absolute---  When you can't even trust ****yourself---"**_

_Swearing horribly under his breath, he settled against the wall to wait.  He had a *few choice words* to say to himself when he saw him next….._

************************************************

The Young Detectives were actually behaving like….. well, like _detectives._  Apparently the seriousness of the situation had sunk in.  Of course, that didn't mean that they were handling it like _adults._  Why should they, after all?

They had played 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' among themselves to pick who would be the first to approach Nodomo-san (Ai flatly refused to allow them to have anything to do with Ojiwa-sensei, Bad Guy or no Bad Guy.  Mitsuhiko had begun to protest with his usual vehemence but had subsided surprisingly quickly at a stern look from Ai's grey eyes.  Watching, Ran/Rin had thought fleetingly of a bit of heart-shaped graffiti she had seen on the back of his notebook and smiled internally despite her worries.)

Predictably Genta had won; the rather oversized gradeschooler had grinned in triumph but had not added his usual boasts of imminent victory—there was a certain grimness about the set of his young, round face this time.  _This_ time the matter concerned a friend, and even a child could understand the importance of that.

Especially _these_ children.  More and more she was realizing how much she had underestimated them.

Sonoko had protested being parted from her charges, but had agreed reluctantly that she had the least chance of being noticed near Ojiwa-sensei's home and should therefore take up a post there.  As she had climbed back into her taxi to head in his direction, she had bent low to hug Rin gently; "Don't worry, Ran-kun—we'll _get_ the bastard… and we'll find Shinichi for you, too--" she had whispered.  For a moment the two friends had clung together; then, with a wink, Suzuki Sonoko had settled back onto the taxi's seat and ridden off into the sunset, a most unlikely form of Cavalry.

As they approached Nodomo's apartment house Rin suddenly halted in her tracks; from behind her Mitsuhiko and Genta bumped into her with twin "Ooof!"s, causing her to stagger slightly.  Ayumi and Ai stopped as well, drawing unconsciously closer; "What, Rin-kun?  What's wrong?"  She looked fearfully around, while Ai drew quietly away towards the nearest sheltering doorway.  Rin followed, beckoning the others, and five young faces peered around the recess's edge at a small Western-style coffeeshop a quarter-block or so away…..

….. or, more specifically, the new car parked in front of it.  "My mo—I mean, my Oba-san's car…..  That means that she and Oji-san are watching the place too."  Rin scowled, her dark eyes fixed on the car.  

Ayumi and the other two children exchanged slightly puzzled glances; "But… isn't that _good?_  I mean, that way there are even more people watching Nodomo-san…"  Mitsuhiko sounded perplexed for a moment; then his expression cleared and he also scowled ferociously.  "Oh, **_I_ get it!  They'll stop us and make us go home if they see us, ne?"  He snorted, sounding ridiculously like Conan in that second—it was easy to see who he had borrowed the expression from.  _"Grownups…"_ he announced with all the considerable disdain of someone who had yet to pass the four-foot mark in height.**

Rin couldn't quite manage a laugh, but she smiled crookedly at her friend.  "Grownups…" she agreed.

"Perhaps we might find a way past the shop without being seen?"  Ai indicated an alleyway off to one side; a quick trot through and a few turns brought them out on the other side of the apartment building.  From the vantage point of another parked car they could clearly see the familiar forms of Mouri Kogoro, Professor Agasa and Kisaki Eri at a table, sipping their cups of coffee; Rin grimaced, recalling her father's dislike of the liquid.  All things considered, it was very much in _everybody's_ best interests if they didn't get caught by the grownups.

_Grownups….._

Was that how she was viewing them now?  Wasn't _she_ a 'grownup' inside, no matter what shape she wore?  Wasn't  Shinichi?  When had she started viewing her father and the rest as… as part of a group in which she no longer had a place?  Wasn't she _still_ Mouri Ran, 17-nearly-18-years-old and counting and a woman grown—no matter what she looked like?

Wasn't she?

How many times, Ran wondered, had Shinichi had to go through this—this redefinition?  How many times had he been forced to choose which side to take?  She could almost hear his voice in her mind:  _*There's only one truth…..*_

Her fingers tightened on the bumper of the parked car she knelt behind, leaving sweat-damp marks on the chrome.

_*But the truth changes, Shinichi-kun; it's true that I was Ran, and it's true that I'm Rin now, just like you're Conan.  Maybe it began as a mask, but sometimes the masks come to life, don't they?*  _ He had always chosen her side, no matter what; he had stayed with her, always, even when he could have gone to America with his parents.  He had told her about that.  Both Shinichi and Conan had created places in her life that only they could fill.

_*Shinichi….. Conan….. I need you.  Please don't go away…..  I changed so I could stay with you.  Don't leave me!*_

Himitsu Rin crouched on the other side of a car, a child among children, staring silently at the grownups across the street; Mouri Ran looked out from behind her eyes, remembering the night before and how her father had held her back.   She knew that it was out of love—but—it was hard to think of that, when all she could think of was _Shinichi_, lost and needing her help.

Deep in her heart she made a decision; it didn't matter whether or not she was still a 'grownup', whether or not she ever gained admission to that part of the world again—right now, all that mattered was Kudo Shinichi and whatever she could do to help him.  If that meant choosing to be a child among children… _fine._  The grownups were over there; but she was over _here_, with the people that were willing to help her do what needed to be done.

_Good enough._

Suddenly, being less than four feet tall felt oddly… _comfortable._  She no longer felt weak, or useless, or inadequate.

_*Just let me get within arm's reach, Ojiwa-sensei, and I'll show you just how weak I'm not…..*_

Ai was looking at her oddly; Rin wondered what her own expression was showing in that moment.  A glow of fierceness was spreading through her as she thought of Shinichi—of _Conan-kun,_ stolen and locked away by that little bastard of a science teacher.  She turned to the others, not really surprised when their eyes widened and they stepped back a little.  "Rin-kun?  Are you… okay?  You look sort of angry….."  Ayumi's voice held a certain note of trepidation.

Rin actually smiled a little.  "Not angry, Ayumi-chan; just—determined.  Genta-kun, are you ready?"

The large boy grinned down at her a little nervously.  "'Course I am.  Here goes!"  Visibly gathering his courage, Genta pushed open the side entrance they had found and entered the building.  A moment later his round head popped back through the door, and he hissed out "There's a list on the wall of who's in what apartment!  This is gonna be *easy!*  He's in 1217---"  

Ai sighed.  "Get _on_ with it, Genta-kun…"  The head disappeared back inside and they heard the clumping of feet as he climbed the rather rickety stairs.

A moment later the muffled ringing of a doorbell could be heard; silence then, followed by distant, muffled conversation and the abrupt closing of a door.  The slow thump of feet came back down the staircase, and seconds later a disgruntled Genta pushed through the entrance.  

"Did it work?  Did you see anything?" asked Mitsuhiko eagerly, craning his head around the doorway as if expecting missing kids to pop out of the woodwork.  "Uh-uh; he held the door real close to him—I couldn't see a THING," groused the larger boy.  He stared down at his toes, scuffing one in the gravel outside the door.  "Maybe if I go up again in a few minutes?" asked Genta hopefully.

Mitsuhiko gave him a scornful look.  "No way—it's MY turn, I get to go next-----"

Rin tapped him on the shoulder.  "Actually… it's _Ayumi-chan's_ turn next, I think.  Didn't she beat you?  Scissors cuts paper, right?"  Past her shoulder Ayumi stuck her tongue out at Mitsuhiko, who looked sulky.  Ai crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall, her face calm, almost bored….. if one discounted the very slight smile of amusement that curved her lips as she watched the proceedings.

* * *

And so it went for the next several hours; every twenty minutes or so a child would go up the stairs, knock on the door of apartment 1217 and ask if Toshiro-kun could come out and play.  It would have worn thin the patience of a _saint,_ much less the failing nerve of the frightened, guilt-wracked wreck that Nodomo Hiroku had become.  Each child had their own method of 'Nodomo-torture'; Ayumi tried for wide-eyed winsomeness and persuasion, Mitsuhiko for cleverness and peering past Nodomo-san's legs at every opportunity, and Genta simply blared his request in an increasingly loud, irritating voice.  None of this worked, but after three hours or so of attempts a deterioration of their quarry's behavior was noticeable.  He took longer and longer to answer the bell, his replies were shorter and shakier, his excuses less believable… or so Rin and Ai were told.

Rin stayed down below; control was hard enough this morning, with the feeling in the air of minutes slipping past like the sands in an hourglass—if she had gone up the stairs to Nodomo-san's apartment, she felt she would have lost it completely and started shrieking at him like a madwoman.  From moment to moment she varied from a semblance of calm to wondering just how effective her karate would be against an adult.

_*Shinichi, just hold on—we'll find out where you are if we have to tie him up and-----*_  She stopped that thought right where it was; it was too tempting.  

_(…..Even more tempting was the near-silent little voice that kept urging her to slip away and do what she would have done if she had been in her adult form:  confront Ojiwa-sensei, despite any violence the man might offer…..)_

She wished Sonoko-kun were with her.  She wondered how she was doing.

Ai stayed below as well, saying very little besides the occasional suggestion on technique or observation regarding Nodomo's mental state.  Every now and then she would slip away from the others to peer quietly around the corner at the group in the coffeeshop, who maintained their vigil while imbibing near-endless amounts of coffee.  Her gaze would occasionally fix on Agasa's profile; when it did so, her expression tended to slip from bland blankness into mild disapproval.  Rin heard her mutter something concerning "decaf" and "statistics", but decided not to ask.

************************************************

Suzuki Sonoko checked her watch for what had to be the twentieth time in the past hour; the sun hung high above her, nearly at its zenith, and she was very, very bored.

_*Oh COME on, Ojiwa-san; DO something already, please?*_  Her quarry had stayed put like a rat in a hole, frequently walking past the window or stopping to peer through the blinds; she could see nothing more than his silhouette, but she knew which window to watch via a bit of flirty questioning of another apartment's resident (and he'd been cute, too—a bit too _old_ for her taste, mid-20's at least, but cute).

She shifted her position, crossing her legs and stretching a little; much longer on this park bench and she'd have the pattern from the struts permanently branded on her behind.  But it was a good vantage point, really—she wasn't even facing the building!  Sonoko preened mentally at her own cleverness; how brilliant of her to notice the huge mirror-tinted windows of the office building across the street—she could sit facing _completely_ away from Ojiwa's place and yet still see everything!

_Damn,_ but she was a genius.  Kudo Shinichi, eat your heart out!

And there he went past the window again; what the heck was the moron doing, trying to wear a hole in the carpet?  Pace, pace, pace, stop and fidget with the blinds, pace, pace, pace…..  Stupid man.  Clearly a case of extreme paranoia.

Sonoko sighed, turning the page of her magazine; she had read the article in front of her so many times already that she was beginning to think she could recite it verbatim.  Yawning, she flexed her fingers (trying not to crack her knuckles, of course; her mother had told her that that lead to prematurely-aged skin on one's hands), then jumped slightly as she felt a weight settle on the bench beside her.

_*Hello…..*  _The weight belonged to—oh, this guy was _good_-looking; her practiced eyes assessed him quickly, setting up a profile with unconscious skill.  About her age, nice jeans and shirt, trim waist and wide shoulders (oooh), stylishly-cut dark hair, brown eyes a bit shy but obviously noticing her gaze…..

And, as the conversation that tentatively developed over the next few minutes told, interested in lunch.  With _her._  In one of the nice little places down the street.

_*……….…...*_

_*Ran-chan, you owe me one…*_ she thought mournfully, watching as he walked away after her reluctant turn-down.  _*And Shinichi-kun, you owe me double.*_

But at least she _had_ gotten his number…..  With a sigh, Suzuki Sonoko shouldered her duty and returned to her post.

************************************************

The slow hours slid past; the young detectives grew bored and Rin grew increasingly panicky.  Every time she wondered about Shinichi/Conan's location her heart seemed to wince with pain inside her chest, anticipating more pain to come.  The kids were becoming disinterested and bored—despite the best of intentions, a child is still a child.  Even Ai was beginning to look a little dubious.

_Finally….._

….. Rin could take no more.

No more waiting, no more worry, no more wondering whether or not the person she cared the most about in the world was alive or dead.  _Enough was enough._

Genta-kun had just come down the stairs for the umpteenth time; he took his seat with the others, slumped against the apartment building's outer wall in the shade of a convenient bush.  "Rin-kun, this is _borrrrrr_ing…..  He won't even let us _talk_ to him now; he just opens the door when we knock and yells 'He's not here, now GO AWAY!' and slams it in our faces."  The boy yawned.  "I'm getting hungry, too….."

Silently Ai fished around in her backpack, pulling out an apple; she handed it over to Genta, who grinned widely in thanks.  The boy continued:  "…and we're not (chomp) getting _anywhere_ (chomp, crunch) with this.  Why don't we go after the other bad guy?  I mean, how scary can he _be?"_

Rin said nothing for a moment, just sat quietly against the wall, hands clasped around her knees.  At last she looked up, and Genta's eyes widened.  "Um, Rin-kun?  You're looking _scary_ again….."

She drew a deep breath, standing up and brushing off her clothes.  "I have had _enough_ of this."  Her young voice was very soft—but a discerning listener might catch the barest trace of an edge, thin and bright as the razored fineness of a katana.  Ai frowned up at her from her seat beside Ayumi but Mitsuhiko scrambled eagerly to his feet.  "Rin-kun?  _Are_ we gonna go after the other bad guy?  _Cool!"_

"No.  We're _all_ going up to talk to Nodomo-san.  Right now."  Her voice brooked no objections.

Even Ai came along this time, saying "Rin-kun?  Are you certain this is wise?" very quietly as they ascended the stairs.  She received no reply; Rin simply knocked on apartment 1217 with a hard staccato knock very unlike the small-fisted banging that the children had made.  A knock, actually, that sounded remarkably like a policeman's insistent knock.  Sometimes it helped to be a former cop's daughter.

A momentary hesitation inside the apartment; then there were the sounds of the door being unlatched.  Nodomo Hikaru's apprehensive, haggard face peered around the doorframe, lighting up in tired rage as he dropped his gaze to the group of children.  _"Now_ what?!?  I _told_ you, he's not h---"

Rin cut him off with a single curt word:  _"**Ojiwa."**_

He blinked, pausing in the act of slamming the door; his bloodshot eyes glared blearily down at her in confusion.  "Uh—w-what?  O-_Ojiwa_---??"  Guilt and terror rippled over his lined, stubbled face like water over stones.  "W-why did you say _that_ name?  He's not…. He's not here.  Did he—send you?"  Momentary hope warred with the fear on his face, making his thin features writhe unpleasantly.  "W-what do you want?"

She stared back, her dark eyes sharp as needles, hard and cold; _"Conan._  Where is he?  Your son is missing--- we know Ojiwa has him.  He has our friend Conan-kun _too_."  

The man choked as if he had a fishbone stuck in his throat; eyes bugging out, he staggered back slightly from the door.  "No---  I, I, I d-don't know what you're talking about…..  No, I---"

_"Yes."_  Rin stepped forward into the disheveled living room of the tiny apartment; a small part of her noted distantly the general disarray of her surroundings, but all her attention was fixed on the white-faced man who was even now backing away from her small form.  "He disappeared a day ago, and we know why.  We know _all about you,_ Nodomo-san--- about the drugs in the coffee, about how you've been dropping them off at the park—and we know about Ojiwa-sensei too.  We know he took Toshiro-kun and hasn't given him back yet.  _Why didn't you go to the police?"_  The last words came out in a fierce hiss _quite_ unlike anything a child should've been capable of making.

Nodomo flinched back from her words as if they had been a spray of boiling water; his façade was crumbling before their eyes, every defense stripping away under the assault of words.  "He—he said he'd k-kill Toshiro if I told…..  I had to do what he said, I _had_ to!  But—but—you said….. **he took****_another kid_****_?__"_  Something like a sob broke through his words, and he grabbed at the table behind him to keep from falling.**

Ayumi spoke up, her voice almost as severe as Rin's (though not nearly as cold):  "Conan-kun went out to do something yesterday—we think maybe he tried to rescue Toshiro-kun….. but he never came back.  Ojiwa-sensei's a _bad man,_ and if he has Conan-kun we need to find him!"  Behind her Genta and Mitsuhiko nodded grimly, their eyes fixed on Nodomo's face.  

From the back of the small knot of children Ai's soft, clear words carried:  "Do you _really_ believe that your son is still alive, Nodomo-san?  _Do you?"_  

The air in the apartment seemed to hold its breath in shock at her words.  There was a small, cold moment of silence.

Genta and Mitsuhiko stepped aside to let her slight form through; Haibara Ai stepped forward, her icy, clinical gaze fixed on the trembling man before her.  "Do you think that someone like Ojiwa-sensei would keep a witness alive any longer than he had to?  _I don't._  As soon as they were—inconvenient—he'd make sure they were no longer any trouble, _wouldn't_ he?"

Ai's words struck the frightened man like blows; beside her, Mitsuhiko gave a perceptible jerk as well, and belatedly she seemed to recall that Toshiro had been his friend.  Her grey gaze softened slightly as she turned towards him, something like regret in its depths; the boy stared back, wide-eyed and appalled.

"No….." whispered Nodomo, his face ashen.  Rin stared up into his face.  Somewhere deep inside she was conscious of feeling sorry for the man, but any sympathy would have to wait for later.  Right now…..

….. she wanted to find _Conan._  Almost inaudibly she spoke, and this time the words were full of pain, not anger.  "Nodomo-san….. we want to find our friend.  _Please_—help us!  Please?"

But he wasn't listening.  **_"Toshiro…"_ he moaned, bringing his hands up to cover his eyes; there was a whole world's worth of black despair in the word.  Again Rin spoke, a little louder this time.  "Nodomo-san…?  Will you help us?  Or does someone _else_ have to die?"  And with that, she reached out very gently to touch his wrist.**

He jerked back from her as if her touch had been fire_.  "My fault…"_ he whispered, staring straight ahead_; **"…all my fault…" **_

And with that he broke, shoving past them all and bolting out the door.

Rin staggered, nearly falling as she was shoved roughly aside; she regained her balance, astonished all over again at the sheer _lightness_ of her new form.  _"Nodomo-san!!  Please---"_ she cried out, reaching after him; but he was out the door and pounding down the stairs, his sobbing breath keeping time with his steps.  She heard the door slam back against the wall with the force of his exit as Ayumi helped her up.  "Rin-kun, are you alright?"

"Y-yes—we can't let him get _away—"_

But Mitsuhiko and Genta were already thudding down the stairs after him, their shouts echoing in the stairwell.  As their voices died away into the sounds of traffic outside the building, Rin, Ayumi and Ai looked from one to another.  Oddly enough it was Ayumi who spoke first.  "Rin-kun—what will your Oji-san and Oba-san do when they see Nodomo-san leave the building?"  Rin opened her mouth, but Ayumi continued triumphantly.  "They'll follow him!  Let's go down and meet them, okay?"  The child grabbed both her and Ai's hands, towing them behind her through the apartment door.

Ai raised one eyebrow but allowed herself to be dragged along; as she fell in behind Rin, her face showed an unaccustomed flicker of curiosity.  Clattering down the stairs, the young scientist made an odd 'hmph' sort of sound, saying speculatively "I doubt he's going very far; in fact, I'd expect him to confront Ojiwa-san now, considering what we've given him to think about.  Do you know, I wonder….."

Rin wiped away a bead of sweat as she clanged down the stairway behind Ayumi.  "What?"  
  


"I wonder…..  What was it that made Ojiwa-san take Toshiro-kun hostage in the first place?"  Ai shaded her eyes as she passed out into the alley behind the two other girls.  Rin shrugged.  "He saw something he shouldn't have, I guess—wouldn't that be enough?"  

Behind her Ai murmured softly "I suppose….. but there should be something more, something that made Ojiwa-san regard Nodomo as a danger, ne?  And I can't help but wonder what it is."

The three rushed towards the corner, nearly running head-on into Genta and Mitsuhiko as they came panting around the side of the building.  "He's (puff), he's (huff) heading for his car—it's parked down the street—" gasped out the thinner boy; Genta was too winded still to speak, but leaned forward with his hands on his knees and fought for breath.

"Right;" said Rin, her voice tight with tension.  "Come on."  She started down the sidewalk, short legs moving quickly.  Genta groaned in protest but followed along behind the rest as she started across the street towards the coffeeshop---

--- from which her parents and Professor Agasa were emerging in a hurry.  Mouri stopped short, an expression of extreme irritation crossing his face and making his moustache bristle.  "**_Ran?!?_  What the _HELL _are you doing here?!?"**

(Ayumi stopped short at that, looking from Mouri-san to Rin-kun curiously.  _"'Ran'?"_ she wondered to herself in confusion.  The others paid no attention.)

Eri and the Professor simultaneously opened their mouths to speak, but Rin cut them off with a sharp gesture.  "Stop-- let's just pretend we've already had this conversation, okay?  _You've_ yelled at me, _I've _yelled back, and you've agreed to take us all in the car with you so you can chase down Nodomo-san, okay?  Great idea, you're totally right, _let's get going!!_"  The other children stared, astounded by her words and the remarkably adult tone of her voice.  Ai simply smiled rather wryly to herself.

Mouri and his wife looked at each other, open-mouthed, as Rin watched them both, frowning fiercely.  "He's getting _away_--"  She slipped past her father to open the back seat's car-door, sliding across the cushions.  "Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko, Ai?  _Let's go."_

As Ai took her place in the vehicle, she looked up at the three adults standing mutely on the sidewalk.  "Coming?" she asked sweetly.

Agasa eyed her suspiciously; Eri shook her head in bemusement and sighed.  "You're right—we're wasting time.  Agasa-san, you ride in the front; Kogoro, get in the back with the kids."  The detective sputtered incoherently, but Genta could be heard to mutter softly to Mitsuhiko: "Good; he's _skinnier_ than the Professor.  I don't wanna be squished."  The freckled boy rolled his eyes and gave his oversized friend a withering glance, but said nothing.

Shoehorned in beside Ai, Mouri-san looked uncomfortably down at the small blonde head beside him, but the small girl said nothing; her attention was focused entirely on the rapidly-disappearing vehicle that was even now pulling away from the curb several hundred feet ahead.  "The blue Daihatsu…" she said in a low voice; Eri-san nodded firmly, eyes flashing with eagerness to finally _do_ something as she slipped into the stream of traffic.

_Two figures, one tall and one short, stood on the curb, watching the car pull away; the taller waved his arms in desperation.  "Dammit!!  RAN!!"  He turned to his companion, who sighed and looked disappointed.  The boy tugged at the older youth's hand; "C'mon, Niisan; let's try again…..  Hey—why'd you call her 'Ran', anyway?"_

_"Ummmmm….. tell you later, okay?"  The young man scratched at his head.  "It's kind of complicated---"_

* * *

It took very little time to figure out Nodomo's destination; they were so close to Beika Elementary School that it was more of a problem staying _back_ from their quarry's view, rather than losing sight of him.  The tightly-crammed carfull of hunters drove slowly past as the thin man hurried in through the school's open gates without looking around once.

"Open gates…" murmured Mouri-san thoughtfully, the words coming out slightly breathless from his squashed state; "I wonder why they're open on a weekend?"  The car rolled to a halt, bumping the curb.

The answer came ambling around a corner with a broom in one hand; a man in a custodial worker's coverall, his cap pulled low over his dusty brown hair.  He glanced disinterestedly at their slowly-moving car—then did a double take, tugging the cap even lower.  "That's Hei-san the new janitor—he sweeps the halls and he's really nice!  He knows magic tricks; he pulled a five-yen piece out from behind Genta's ear one time…" piped up Ayumi.  The detective grunted, fingering his moustache.  "Hrmph; let's see if he'll let us in."

The lanky janitor eyed the oddly-assorted party with a sort of dubious amusement as they headed up the sidewalk; "School's closed; better come back later…" he suggested laconically, leaning on his broom.  "Konnichiwa, Rin-kun…"  All heads swiveled towards the small girl as she smiled weakly up at the man.  "Hi, Hei-san; look, we _really_ need to get into the school.  It's—it's, um… we—"  She stopped, her small face furrowing as she groped for an excuse.

"—it's to do with a case, actually—" said her father smoothly, stepping forward and preparing to lie through his teeth.  "We're on official detective business, and—"

A screech of brakes from the street behind them made everyone except for Hei-san jump as a taxi pulled up with Suzuki Sonoko hanging half out the window_.  "Raaaaan-chan!_  He took off!!!  I watched him—he drove away in a hurry and he looked absolutely WIRED—he acted like a maniac!! and I got a taxi as quick as I could but I _lost_ the jerk, and then I saw your mom's _car_ and—"  She halted, her mouth open; it took a moment for the Suzuki Mental Playback to engage, but when it did her eyes widened and she paled.  "I—I mean _RIN-kun_, of course… and that's your oba-san, not your mom….. h-heh; silly me!  Guess it's just habit, what with you looking _so_ much like Ran and all….."  The young blonde woman's words trailed off and she laughed nervously, cheeks pink.

_("Ran-chan??"_ Ayumi wondered to herself again, her brown eyes troubled.  Young mental gears began to turn, slowly, slowly.  Genta and Mitsuhiko looked at each other, confused.)

"Never mind that now….. " Rin led her small troop towards the doors to the school, eyes determined; Hei-san followed behind, scratching at his head.  "'Official detective business', huh?  Can't stand in the way of _that,_ I guess."  He held the unlocked door open for the hunting party to pass through, a trace of an ironic grin quirking one corner of his mouth.  "Just saw Nodomo-san running through one of the halls like his ass was on fire a minute ago—uhh, sorry 'bout the language, kids, ladies—you looking for him?"

Mouri-san gritted his teeth.  "Did you see where he was going?"

The man shrugged.  "Looked like his office, I guess.  Down that way—"  He pointed.  The small group headed in the indicated direction, only to be stopped by Eri-san's outstretched arm.  _"Shoes;_ manners, everyone."  Grumbling, both adults and children took a second to slip their shoes off in the accepted Japanese manner beside the entrance; Ayumi gave Rin a last thoughtful look and volunteered to go and get the students' school-scuffs, trotting down the hall to the left while the rest continued on to Nodomo's office.

Hei-san the Janitor slipped his own workshoes off, hanging them from a loop on his belt; his face was carefully blank, but an eyebrow kept creeping up as he watched one small girl in particular pad down the hall.  _*Whoa; THOUGHT I had it right, but it's way bizarre to hear it confirmed.  Leave it to the Suzuki girl to blurt things out all over the landscape, though…..  What the hell have you been doing, Kudo, to get your girlfriend in such a fix?*_  As he followed the rest down the hall, his faded brown eyes rested on Rin's dark head with a curious mixture of fascination and sympathy.  _*I'd give a lot to know the story behind this.  Who knows?  Someday, somehow, maybe…..  Everything changes, after all.  Even detectives and criminals; even kids and teenagers.  If there's anything I've learned, it's that.*_

Ayumi returned with her own and her schoolmates' scuffs; continuing on, the party slowed as they approached the one open door in the hall.  Mouri held out a cautioning hand; carefully the detective slid along the wall to peer around the doorjamb.  Sonoko craned her head around Hei-san's shoulder to see (the Janitor was somewhat alarmed to find himself being used as a shield…)

As it was, it wouldn't have mattered if they had shown up with a full marching band, not with what Nodomo was doing.  Crouching over his keyboard, the man was typing: not well, not adeptly—he seemed to favor the three-fingers-and-a-thumb method of someone who came late in life to computers.  But his screen cleared, filled with text, showed file and directory and index---

--- and then the drive whirred as data wrote itself onto a disk.  He drooped, every ounce of energy seeming to run out like water from his limbs.  _"Done…_ all of it, **_all_ of it, right here….. _finally done._"  The disk popped out into his sweating hands, and he turned in his swivel chair to regard his watchers without the least indication of surprise.  At the sight of his face, the adults—even Haibara Ai—flinched.**

Something in the man had _broken._  Some crucial part of his mind had snapped, and all his attention was now devoted to performing one task, meeting one goal.

_"Here."_  His glazed, bloodshot eyes did not appear to notice anyone in the room save for the children; all of Nodomo-san's attention was fixed on the small group that slowly pushed forward with Rin in the forefront.  "Here.  You—_take this, now."_  

Her small fingers closed over the disk and her dark eyes looked down at it wonderingly, then back up to his face.  The supply clerk had slumped back into his chair the moment the disk had left his hand; his limbs were loose and purposeless, like those of a puppet whose strings have been cut.  Eyes closed, he whispered:  "It was all for **_this__,_ you know…..  I told him I wanted out and I said—I said I'd tell the police things….. names, dates, how much came in…..  That's when Toshiro heard us fighting, and he—_he--"_  The weary voice shattered like brittle glass, the shards rattling down into a rain of jagged fragments.  "…..wanted it to just *_end*_—wanted it to be over, all those kids out there like mine—it was just easy money before, and I didn't, didn't _care,_ but then I—but he wouldn't _LISTEN_ and he wouldn't _STOP_ even when Hedoro-san got caught---"  The words trailed off into broken sobs.**

Oddly enough it was the _name_ that he mentioned that made Kisaki Eri's eyes widen, made her hiss softly under her breath.  Mouri shot her a side glance but she shook her head.  "Later…" she murmured.  Mouri nodded, dark eyes frowning; his daughter glanced up at him and passed the disk into his keeping without a word.

"Nodomo-san…..  Nodomo-san, _*listen*--_"  The little girl knelt before him, one hand gently touching his bowed head; his sobs checked somewhat and he seemed to listen.  "Nodomo-san….. our friend Conan—we have to find him before it's too late.  Do you have _any_ idea where he might have hidden him--?"  The broken man raised his face to meet Rin's desperate eyes with his own; there was very little left besides despair in his gaze, but she did not flinch.  _"**Where,**_ Nodomo-san?"

**_"Please…..?"_**

He shook his head back and forth, the broken mechanism of a clockwork toy.  "…don't know, don't know….. couldn't even look for my _own_ kid, he'd see me….."

An unexpected voice spoke up then from the hallway, a low, unhurried voice:  "Nodomo-san—did your boy hate closed windows?"  Sonoko let out a faint squeak.

The very oddity of the question made heads turn to look at the source.  Hei-san leaned against his broom, hands clasped across the top of the pole; his brown eyes were shadowed by the brim of his cap, revealing nothing.  But Nodomo-san blinked hard at the question, nodding.  "He _hated_ being closed in… claustrophobic, and I had to open the windows of his room every night---"  For some reason this memory seemed to be the last straw, and the broken man began to weep in earnest.

Rin still knelt before him, eyes dark; slowly she raised one hand to her throat, fumbling with something that hung there.  "Nodomo-san…..  I'm sorry.  I'm so sorry…..  This is all I can give you right now for your own problems; I wish—I wish I could do more."  A tear splashed down onto her small hand as she steadied the tiny device; her fingers tightened and there was a near-soundless _*thwipp!*_

Nodomo jerked, one hand going reflexively to his shoulder; the miniscule needle of an anesthetic dart glittered briefly in the overhead lights as he slowly slumped back in his chair.  Behind Rin, Haibara Ai gave an approving nod.

_"Daddy?"  Toshiro started forward towards his father, face crumpling in distress as the crowd in the doorway moved out into the hall.  Kudo Shinichi shook his head and held the child back with a hand on his thin shoulder.  "Let him sleep, Toshiro-kun; you can't do anything else for him right now."  _

_He looked longingly at Rin's small form as she slowly walked towards the entrance, head bowed in despair.  "God, Ran—Rin-kun—you've got to hear me, you've got to see me---"  He broke away from his companion, racing up the hallway with silent footfalls to stand to one side of the exit, glaring desperately at the group.  One hand reached out to brush ever-so-gently against the rounded cheek of one small, dark-haired girl as she passed him by, walking out towards the sunlight and away… perhaps forever.  Shinichi's voice broke as he called out in desperation:_

_"Rin—RAN—PLEASE—  Don't leave me!!"_

**And she _heard_ him.  Rin's head jerked up, turned to the side; her widened dark eyes stared directly up and into his.  The girl's mouth opened in shock---**

--- and beside her Ayumi gave a startled little-girl scream and leaped back, knocking the two boys half over. ** "!!!"**

"What?? _What??"_  Mouri, Agasa, Eri, Sonoko, Genta and Mitsuhiko froze in their tracks, glaring around wildly in all directions for Ojiwa, anything; Ai shrank against the wall, her hand sliding into her pocket to finger her gun, while Hei-san seemed to fade back into the shadows, eyes suddenly sharp and wary.

Rin stood stock-still; her eyes were enormous.  "He—he was _here….."_  Slowly she turned towards Ayumi-chan, who had half-hidden herself between a very puzzled Genta and Mitsuhiko.  "You saw him, didn't you?  Didn't you?"

Ayumi trembled.  "T-there was _somebody_ there….. he, he said _don't leave me!_  I heard him….."  Her round young faze grew perplexed and a little afraid; she stared at Rin.  "He sounded like— he sounded _familiar….."_   Then her eyes dropped to her feet.  "Oh!  The scuffs….."  Carefully she removed hers, then took the pairs that the others gave her; Rin removed her own very slowly, half-stunned and deep in thought; she did not notice as her friend padded down the hall to return the shoes to their places among the children's shelves.  

"Shinichi….." she whispered, eyes beginning to fill with tears of bewilderment; "…_why _were you—how could you be like—like _that?  _How could you be—"

"—how could you even be _here?"_

_*Oh God, Shinichi, you can't be dea—no, no, NO.  I won't think that, I won't I won't I won't I-----*_

"Rin-kun??"  She turned; Ayumi stood a little ways down the hall, looking wide-eyed and a little pale.  The scuffs were still gathered in the crook of one arm, but she was holding up something else in her other hand.  And it was _Ran_ who recognized Conan's shoes, not Rin; hadn't she put them up in his closet for him a hundred times or more during the past year?

His _shoes._

**"He's _here, _Rin-kun," said Ayumi.  "In the school.  He's ****_here__."_**

_"Shinichi-niisan?  Shinichi-niisan?  Are you okay?"  A worried Toshiro knelt on the ground beside the young detective, who sprawled dizzily against the wall not ten feet from Rin's shocked form.  "Y-yeah—just sort of… stunned."  He actually felt a whole hell of a lot worse than *stunned*-- he felt like somebody had just dragged him through a hedge backwards.  _

_For the first time that he knew of, somebody was finding out what a headache felt like when you weren't wearing a physical body; basically, it felt like shit.  Could you throw up if you were out of your body?_

_And *now* he felt—what—oh hell no, not NOW-----_

_From what seemed to be a vast distance away he could hear Toshiro's voice, getting fainter and fainter--- "Shinichi-niisan?  You're—oh, you're going AWAY—"_

_And everything **vanished…..**_

************************************************

_Conan jumped; he had dozed off.  Soft earth and strands of dry grass crumbled between his fingers as they clenched convulsively on the ground where he sat behind the arcade.  He swallowed hard as the familiar dizziness swept over him-----_

_And everything **vanished…..**_

************************************************

Sick.  He felt so sick; cold, shaking just a little, a faint fine trembling that shivered through his body, making his teeth chatter.  Fever?  Probably.  Yeah, fever felt like that.  Where---

Oh, right; back in that goddamned _box_.

So weak, and his head hurt as much as ever.  But…..

Now he had a _chance._  Ran and Ai and Agasa and Sonoko, Mouri and Eri, Ayumi and Genta and Mitsuhiko—and even Hei-san, of all people—

_They were all in the building.  They were looking for him.  And Ran and Ayumi knew he was here!  _Even if they didn't know where he was, not yet, they knew he was in the school…..

….. somewhere.

Edogawa Conan felt his heart lurch in the first real hope he had felt in what seemed like an eternity.

Now all he had to do was stay conscious…..

************************************************

It was all a little too much.  Rin and the kids sat together at one of the tables in the empty cafeteria, unconsciously huddled in a small, short group.  Ai sat between them and the adults; some part of Rin's overstressed brain wondered giddily if she should read anything into that.

_Giddy_ was a good word for her right now; _she knew that Shinichi was here, somewhere._  And somehow—somehow, she knew he was alive, too.  She knew it.

Ayumi was looking a little shell-shocked; she wouldn't let go of Conan's shoes but clung to them tightly.  Rin supposed that this was all a little hard on the kids, although Genta and Mitsuhiko seemed to be holding up alright.  Later on they'd probably have to talk all this out to avoid bad dreams among the kids—she had found herself forgetting lately just how young they really were.

Funny, that; kind of ironic.

Hei-san the Janitor came strolling back towards the table, soda in hand; rather than taking a seat with the adults he leaned against the nearby wall, arms crossed.  "Huh… it's a pretty big school.  If he's here, though, there's only so many places he could've gone.  You said he went missing Friday evening?"  

The custodial worker tugged his cap-brim a bit lower, eyes turned inward in thought.  "Ummmmm….. lemmee think.  There was some sort of Parent-Teacher meeting going on in the assembly rooms; that started pretty early.  Most of the school was unlocked, y'know, in case of fire and all that…..  Why would he come here, anyway?"

Mouri-san stirred, glancing sideways at his wife; she shrugged.  "He was probably checking on one of the teachers or looking for the missing kid—something like that," he said gruffly; he had been watching his daughter closely ever since she had startled him so badly in Nodomo's office with her needle-gun.  _Where_ the hell had she gotten such a thing?!?  

His eyes darted suspiciously to Professor Agasa, who flushed guiltily; he suspected that a talk with the scientist was long overdue and rather relished the prospect, all things considered.

Mouri Kogoro suddenly found himself nursing _grave suspicions_ regarding his status as "The Famous Sleeping Detective".  There would be absolute, utter hell to pay later, if what he suspected was true…..

But first he had to _find_ the goddamned little brat.  He could kill Kudo later, once Ran was happy again.  Priorities, ne?

"Hei-san?"  He turned his head to find his daughter's small, weary figure staring up at the janitor.  "Why did you ask Nodomo-san if his son hated closed windows?"

Yeah, that _was_ a good question.  He arched a dubious eyebrow at the man; there was something _fishy_ about Hei-san….. something that alerted his internal radar, something he couldn't quite put a finger on.

The janitor scratched at the back of his neck with one work-gloved hand.  "Ummmm…. Just some weirdness that's been going on lately around here at night.  The windows keep popping open—all of 'em except one, that is."  He looked vaguely puzzled.  "Damned—um, darned if I can figure out what's happening to make it happen….."

Genta and Mitsuhiko (who had been looking slightly lost up to this point) seized on this eagerly; you couldn't deal with Edogawa Conan for a year without learning _something_ about investigations—always look for the exception.  "One doesn't open?  Which one?"  Mitsuhiko half-fell out of his chair, twisting around so he could see the janitor.

The man frowned, pulling a rather grubby and well-folded piece of paper out of his pocket; he spread it out on the lunchroom table in front of Ai (whom he had been keeping a wary eye on; something about the child gave him the shivers.  Of course, there was that little dartgun-pendant that Rin-chan seemed so proficient with—_that_ little toy _really_ made him nervous…..).  

"See--?  Right there."  Hei-san pointed a grubby, gloved finger at a room on the plans; a table-full of people leaned in to view it, and he discreetly stepped back out of the way.  "Always ready to help the authorities, yep, that's me….." he muttered to himself with an ironic curl of his lips, but no-one seemed to notice except perhaps Sonoko, who gave him a doubtful look.

Mouri-san grunted.  His wife leaned forward, adjusting her glasses and following the diagram with one finger back to where they currently were located.  "This is a—what?  A storage room for the teachers?"  She frowned down at the floorplan as if it were a recalcitrant witness.

Hei-san shrugged.  "Yeah—it's used by a real _jerk_ of a teacher, a guy named Ojiwa Ryu.  He—"

It was a good thing the Janitor liked a lively audience; the reactions of the party at the table were _anything_ but quiet or restrained at this point, ranging from Mouri Kogoro's vociferous swearing to the shrieks of three excited kids as everyone, _everyone_ suddenly stampeded for the exit in a mass exodus.  Only Rin-kun and Ai moved quietly—but they beat the others out the door.  Chairs clattered over, falling in disarray.

And Hei-san found himself left suddenly alone, standing with hands on hips in the deserted cafeteria.  He cocked his head to one side curiously.  "Hm; was it something I said, do you suppose?" he asked the empty room.

Then, grinning to himself (and checking his pockets for his set of lockpicks—he'd have to figure out a way to explain _those_ to Mouri-san, he supposed), he strode out of the room.  As he headed down the hall at a good clip, he sang softly to himself lyrics from an old American cartoon series he had once watched.  The strongly-accented English echoed faintly in the hall:

_"Heeeeere we come to save the daaaaaay-----"_

All in all, it was a bit of a pity, though; if he had been watching his surroundings more closely, he might have seen the furtive figure that dodged around a doorway just before he turned the corner.  Hateful, narrowed eyes watched him go, and then the figure moved out to slip through the shadowy halls behind him, moving towards Nodomo-san's office.

************************************************

The supply clerk stirred groggily in his chair as consciousness returned, trying to hold on to the peaceful darkness.  He didn't want to wake—something _bad_ was waiting for him past the edge of wakefulness, something he had let happen.  Something he could not bear….. something about Toshiro…..

**_Toshiro._**  It all came flooding back to him then.

Empty; he felt so….. and there was nothing, _nothing_ left for him in this world because he had let it happen.  His son was _dead_ because he had let it happen, had let it all happen-----

But it wouldn't _keep_ happening—he had given the disk to that little girl, the one with the knowing eyes.  The angel's eyes.  _She_ would keep it from continuing, would stop the poison and make sure nobody else died.  She would---

A door opened.  His office door?  Had the angel come back for him?

No, not the angel; the worst of devils, holding cold, metallic death in his hands and pointing it straight at him.  Nodomo felt laughter struggling up from somewhere inside him, and he knew that if he started to laugh he would never stop.

That was fine—maybe laughter would fill the emptiness.  He began to laugh, watching the death quiver in the devil's hands as it strained to launch itself at him.  "You're too late—I gave her the disk" he gasped between his laughter, seeing the devil's eyes blaze in hatred down at him.  "I did….. and it's _too late for you….."_

The devil's lips drew back, showing his teeth.  "No…" he hissed, fingers tightening.  "It's too late for _you."_

There was a sound, hard and final, and Nodomo's laughter stopped forever.

************************************************

_*hurry, hurry, hurry*_

The words pounded in Rin's brain like drumbeats as her small feet carried her through the halls--

_*hurry, hurry, hurry*_

-- Ai was running with her too, and she could hear the clamor and noise of her parents and Sonoko, of Agasa and the kids coming up swiftly behind--

_*hurry, hurry, hurry*_

--and they were there, skidding to a stop:  _STORAGE-3B.  Just a normal door, with a small transom window above it.  A __closed transom window.  Rin panted, stumbling to lean against the wall as she recognized the stain beside her hand.  Conan had gotten that paint-chip from it, the one with the bloodstains…..  The transformed young woman heard Ai's breath catch in her throat as she took in the sight of the damaged plaster; it looked…  It hardly looked like something more than a week __old, in fact it almost looked like it was—_

Ai moved forward, staring transfixed as Mouri and the rest came clattering up behind.  The young scientist with the caramel-colored hair reached out with small fingers to brush them lightly across the stain… and then jerked back, staring at her dampened and discolored fingertips.

"Fresh…" she whispered, shaking her head.  "How can it be _fresh?"  Behind her Professor Agasa muttered something beneath his breath, placing one hand on her shoulder._

It didn't matter.  Rin threw herself at the door, small fists pounding.  "Shinichi?  Conan?  _Conan!!"_

************************************************

He could hear her.  Conan could _hear her.  Through the waves of dizziness that came and went, the frantic door-muffled voice was the sweetest thing he had ever heard, and his heart jolted unnervingly in his chest at the sound.  __*Ran.  Rin.  I'm here, I'm here, I'm here!  Hurry!*_

************************************************

Large hands reached past as her father twisted the doorknob; it held.  The detective growled in annoyance, his breath coming a little fast after the short run down the halls; moving his daughter aside carefully, he planted a shoulder against the door and shoved—and drew back and body-slammed it hard—and tried again—and _again-------  The hallway reverberated with his efforts.  Halting for a moment, Mouri Kogoro paused to massage his shoulder before drawing back for another try—_

"Don't bother; it's a steel door."  He spun about angrily.

Hei-san the janitor leaned nonchalantly against the opposite wall, hands in pockets; he gave them all a slightly crooked grin, remarking casually "I might have something that'd help here; matter of fact, I've been wanting to do this all _week."  Grumbling, the detective moved to one side; Rin hung back, trembling as the custodian knelt before the door and pulled out a slim packet of tools._

Behind them both Eri-san's gaze sharpened as she took in the ease and familiarity with which the janitor handled the lockpicks; Professor Agasa gave a scientist's 'hrmph' of appreciation, but she had seen lockpick sets like that presented as evidence in court cases before…..  

"Do you do this sort of thing a lot in your line of work, Hei-san?" she asked casually as he delicately ran the rake-pick across the lock's pins.  "Oh, you'd be surprised—it's not unusual for me to run across doors that just won't open any other way; all part of the job, I guess…"  The janitor's voice trailed off, a trace of humor tinting it very faintly.  Mouri-san eyed him with misgivings, but said nothing; Hei-san allowed a small grin to slip through his concentration, then gave a grunt of triumph as the last pin clicked aside_. _

_ "There we go—" and he yanked the door open; it pulled free with an audible __schuff of a tight seal being released.  "Now we can--- God, what the hell's that __smell?!?"  He stumbled back, a hand over his face._

It gusted forth, vile and sickening, and Mouri-san coughed as he pulled his sleeve over his face.  "Get the kids back out of the way, Eri," he commanded in a voice that would brook no opposition.  She shuddered, gathering Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi against her and pulling them away to the jointure of the two hallways.  Ayumi looked up at her, troubled without knowing why; "But… but I want to see if Conan's there _too, Eri-san!  Why can't we—"_

"Shhh….." hushed the woman, her eyes fixed on the open door; "Let them work.  It's okay, just stay here and be still, hmm?"  Beside her the two boys traded worried glances.

It was a wary Mouri Kogoro and Hei-san the Janitor that edged carefully into the room; the custodial worker slid his arm along the wall, looking for a light-switch; but when he clicked it, there was no result.  "Bulb must be out," he muttered.  The open crate towards the back of the room drew their immediate attention, and they approached it with trepidation; the smell…..

Mouri-san had been a cop; he knew what that smell came from, and he dreaded finding it.  He struggled to climb over the boxes, cabinets, mounds of books, old science equipment…  It occurred to him vaguely that that Hei guy seemed to be letting him do all the work and he scowled, motioning the janitor into the room with a thumb.  The thin man shrugged briefly and began to clamber across a pile of old cabinets.  He moved with remarkable flexibility for a janitor, didn't he?  The detective wondered briefly about that, and about the lockpicks….  _*Hrmph; second-story man, maybe?  Got a part-time job, Hei-san?*_

But later for that.  He had reached the box; hating the necessity (and God, how he wished he didn't have to do this!) Mouri-san pulled hard at the askew lid with his free hand, his sleeve clamped even harder over his nose---

There was just enough light coming in through the door to tell him that what he had found was not Conan.  Mouri Kogoro closed his eyes briefly in a thankfulness that he would later refuse to think too hard about.

Right beside him he heard a choked-back sound, half of sickness and half of relief.  "It—it's not _him.  Not Conan."  And he opened his eyes to see his daughter's white, shivering face as she slid back from where she had peered into the crate, her eyes enormous above the hand she had clasped across her own nose and mouth.  "Ran?  Get out of here!"_

She didn't even bother to answer him.  _When the hell had she become so stubborn?  He looked wildly around the room; now where was that damned boy?_

************************************************

….. dark, and he thought he had maybe gone under again.  He _hated that._

Noise?  What was that noise?  Clattering and shifting, boxes moving and grunts of effort….. and a well-known voice cursing half below his breath:  "—Goddamned brat better _be here somewhere… swear I'm gonna knock him into next Thursday for putting me to all this trouble--  Hei-san, you see anything over there?  Ran, get __out of here!  You're just going to trip over something and get hurt and Eri'll have my skin for it—"_

_"No."  _

Oh, God, that beautiful, stubborn, single little word-----  Conan struggled to cry out, tried to cough, to gasp, to do _ANYTHING, make __any damned noise….._

….. and nothing came out.  His throat was just too swollen.  Fine, there was one thing he could still do, small confined space or not.  Gathering his strength for a moment while his prospective rescuers shuffled boxes and stumbled on the other side of the room, he drew back his short legs---

--- and **_kicked_** as hard as he could:  **_BOOOOM!_**  

Immediate silence filled the room as everyone paused.

_*Goal* thought Kudo Shinichi faintly as hands tore away at the boxes blocking the drawer that he lay trapped in._

************************************************

And this is what the others heard and saw:

First there was Rin's shriek, followed by Mouri's exclamation and the flurry and thud of things being moved; a rasping, sliding sound, metal on metal, and a little girl's wordless outcry as her world snapped back into place.

The watchers would remember later that it was _Mouri-san who had come out of the room first, carrying the small figure that he had wrapped in his jacket; the gruff man hefted the boy's limp form with a curious gentleness totally out of context with his usual behavior, and his smudged and dusty face was actually filled with a grim smile._

And Ran… Rin… was right there.

She clung to her father's side, her eyes fixed on the young, pale face of the half-conscious boy cradled in her father's arms.  The intensity of relief that lit her face from within had no place on a little girl's countenance, and neither did the way she reached out to stroke the boy's cheek with one shaking finger as the detective gently laid him on the ground.

A single small hand slid up to wrap weak fingers around hers as dark blue eyes attempted dizzily to focus on her face; Mouri's own eyes narrowed, noticing the fixed and uneven pupils and the abraded throat of his erstwhile charge.  "Concussion—and look at his _throat.  He couldn't have called out for help even if he'd been in a place where he would've been heard….."_

At that, the boy stirred a little, gasping as he tried to form words; nothing, though, no sound at all.  "Conan-kun?" whispered Rin, her hands stroking his face, brushing the hair back from his forehead…..

His dazed eyes tried to meet hers, tried desperately hard to impress _something on her, something important; through a blur of tears she thought she understood the words that his lips were trying to form-----_

"'Open… the—_window?'" said Rin hesitantly; behind her she heard a pop and the creak of hinges, and she turned her head._

Hei-san the Janitor stepped down from the box he had climed up on, dusting his hands.  "There," he said with satisfaction, as dust sifted down from the long-unopened window.

Time seemed to slow, to pause; a strange, tense silence fell.  Then…. Then, it was as if a breeze had blown through STORAGE-3B without the slightest iota of air moving—stillness in motion, a fresh clarity that swept the fugue of vileness and decay away for the barest of moments as something…..

….. something **_left_**.  And Conan's face relaxed as he smiled faintly, his lips moving once again to shape two more words:

_Abayo, Toshiro-kun._

He sighed, closing his eyes and turning his face to press one cheek against Rin's palm.

* * *

Beyond the small group at the doorway, three kids cheered and hopped up and down beside Eri, who was wishing desperately that she had a third hand to hold them back.  

A little ways away Haibara Ai sighed, tension slipping from the narrow shoulders and leaving her slumped against the Professor with relief.  It only lasted a moment, that brief weakness—almost immediately she drew herself up as the familiar calm mask slid down over her face—but Agasa noted her expression for posterity's sake and smiled just a little to himself.

_Thus occupied, he might have been excused for not seeing the blur of activity that suddenly happened just beyond his right shoulder---_

_---as Kisaki Eri suddenly cried out in alarm, as the shrieks of two little boys and one little girl blended with the violent sound of a gunshot-----_

******************************************************************************************************

*************************************************************

*******************

***

TO BE CONCLUDED 

YSABET'S NOTES:  Okay, the downhill stretch.  This section was humongous, but I just couldn't bring myself to break it up.  Reviews, flames, and whatever will be gratefully accepted….. and if anybody feels like drawing a pic of the bit where Rin finally sees Shinichi in the hall, I will be forever grateful, because I dreamed that bit up after WAY too little sleep and I want to see if a pic matches my dream.  Silly, ne?  But so it goes.  Ummm, Majik?  Are you reading this?  If I beg a lot, could you pleeeeeeeeeease draw it?  I mean, if you want to…..  I absolutely LOVED your pics that you drew for Becky Tailweaver….. XD


	10. Hard Lessons

**Second Wind******

**By Ysabet**

**_Chapter 10:  Hard Lessons_**

_The scene would replay itself over and over later on before Kisaki Eri's eyes, looping and looping in an unwanted sequence of events….._

**_*BOOOOOOM!!!*_**

First there was the _sound:  a gunshot from close behind, dull and loud and echoing in the tiled hallway.  She felt something strike her from behind, as if somebody had *kicked* her hard just below the ribs on her left lower back—it didn't hurt at first, but the impact spun her half around and made her stumble and fall sprawling.  _

And then it _DID hurt, a spreading torment of fiery pain that grew and grew as she lay gasping-----_

Next there was the _sight that met her eyes from her floor-level view:  a man, short and stocky, his arms outstretched in a ridiculously clumsy shooter's position, holding a rather small handgun.  Funny how big it looked from where she lay.  He was walking forward, his face shiny with sweat, eyes oddly glazed; he was saying something, too, but the roaring that was building in her ears seemed to be getting in the way of the words somehow….._

Oh; she had been **shot.  _That made sense; it explained why she was lying on the floor.  But somehow it suddenly seemed horribly unfair that she had been shot by someone whom she had yet to meet._**

Everything felt… disconnected… the pain in her back, the cold floor beneath her, the noise of her breathing.

_(I'm in shock, I guess)_

Where were the kids?  That was important, wasn't it?  Oh wait, there was the big one, Genta—his ankles kept getting in front of her face, she couldn't see the shooter (it had to be Ojiwa-san, right?  As far as she knew he was the only one at the moment that might be wanting to shoot her.)  Mitsuhiko?  He was here, she could hear his frightened voice even if she couldn't understand him—oh, to one side, there he was _(get away, you little idiots)—and he was crying out; she felt small hands on her shoulder, shaking her.  Ayumi-chan?   _

and then there was Sonoko_ (her face was so strange, white and spattered with something, she was leaning over Eri and then turning to face away from her, fists clenched)_

Where was Ayumi-chan?  Why was everybody shouting?

She couldn't see properly, couldn't hear; in fact, she couldn't tell anything much, because the floor seemed to be right in her face now.  When had _that happened, and why was it so damned __dark in the hallway all of a sudden----------------_

* * *

-----noise--- WHAT was that noise??  He had heard something just like it, a few minutes earlier-----

-----no, that had been his own feet, kicking the end of the box he was in—had been in—he was OUT now-----

_(it had been, hadn't it?  Where would he have heard a gunshot from while he was in the box?  Thin and tinny, like over a microphone—oh yeah, he had a bug in Nodomo's office, right… who had been shooting a gun in Nodomo's office?)_

-----but what was that _noise?  It was important-----_

Screams, the shrieks of small children, a wordless bellow from right above his head, and he was being held tight, too tight by strong arms that half crushed him and made his vision darken and flutter with spots-----  That was _Ojisan's voice, yelling right then, and that scream, that was Ayumi-kun…..  Why was she screaming?  And where was __Ran?_

He blinked, trying to see past the glare, through the rough jostling and the folds of something that were wrapped around him-----

_Oh shit….._

**_Ojiwa_****_._**

Half-stifled, Conan struggled to sit up; whoever was holding him (Ojisan-- Mouri?) turned a little, blocking most of his view, and Rin moved up beside him; he realized belatedly that they must be trying to keep him hidden from sight.  Pain bloomed in his head from his movements; he could feel the blood-encrusted bump on one side rasping painfully against Mouri-san's chest as the man tucked himself around him.  Spots danced in front of his eyes; what the hell was going _on out there??_

And then he _heard_ him, heard the half-unintelligible voice growling like a beast, like a murderer—

"—bastards, you're _ALL_ after me, aren't you?  Well, you won't get me—I'll lock you _all_ away where you won't be found— I'll take care of _ALL of you—"  _Conan felt himself yanked painfully backwards as Mouri moved, cursing; the man shoved Rin back with the same movement, and she shrieked as she stumbled over something in the doorway of the storage room.  The noises of the gunshots seemed to echo over and over and over in the tiny space, but they weren't enough to hide the terrified cries of young voices in the hallway.__

**_*BOOOOM!!  BOOMBOOMBOOM---*_**

Something thudded hard, _THWACK!! THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!!!_ into the wall that they crouched behind, and the boy felt a wash of relief surge over him as he realized that the gunshots were aimed at _them,_ not at the kids.

_*Run like hell, guys-- *_

But outside in the hall there was another flurry of noise; a high voice squeaked in terror and Mouri-san cursed again, shouting "LET HER GO, DAMMIT!!  Ojiwa, listen!!!  You don't need to—"  What the hell was going on?  God, his head ached.  He gasped, twisting in the man's grip as he tried to sit up again; beside him Rin shook her head violently, pressing a small hand against his chest and crushing his fingers in hers.  _*What's going on out there??  Are the kids alright?  Genta and Mitsuhiko and Ayumi—*_

Ayumi-chan.  That had been _her_ voice just then…..

Mad laughter from outside the doorway, echoing in the hallway.  _"Oh_ yes I do—you won't touch me if I've got her with me, will you?  I know how you work—you can't pull anything on me, damn you…..  Just keep back and she'll be fine, just _fine_….."  His voice was sharp and spiky with adrenaline and with something else, something that made his words pitch and dip crazily in tone, made him talk just a little too rapidly, made paranoia leak from every sentence.  Through his horror Conan could hear the tiny, analytical voice in the back of his head thinking _Drugs; he's dusted again, just like when he caught me.  Must be some sort of stimulant, maybe a cocaine derivative or some new type of—_  He cut the thought off hurriedly; no time for that now.

Ayumi was in trouble; the bastard had grabbed her as a hostage.

More crazed words from the hallway; Conan heard a creak beside him and turned his head to see Hei-san balancing carefully on a stack of dusty somethings as he peered through the now-open transom window.  The Janitor was fishing in his pocket, pulling out something round and silver—a marble-sized ball-bearing?—that  he curled his fingers around and drew back in preparation to throw.  The strong, narrow hand arched back, then whipped forward—

**_*CRACK!!!*_**  The sound of impact was as loud as any gunshot, but the boy saw Hei-san wince, saw his lips move in a muttered _"dammit"_ and felt his own heart sink.  An impact on _flesh_—Ojiwa's thick skull, for instance—wouldn't have sounded so sharp.

From the hallway came short, choppy words, each one distinct as a dart striking home:  **_"Try that again and I'll blow her head off."_**  Ayumi whimpered faintly, her voice muffled; Rin caught her breath on a sob, her hand tightening to a fist where she clutched at Conan's fingers.  _*Goddamit, don't you hurt Ayumi-kun!!  Can't anybody do anything?  Shit, I can hardly move—AYUMI-KUN--*_

"Now.  I'm just going to walk down this hall, and _you're going to let me do it…_ or you're going to find pieces of this little brat all over the walls.  Understand?  _Understand me??"_  Ojiwa was suddenly remarkably calm—that made him sound even more insane than anything else had.  Unhappily Mouri Kogoro grunted in affirmative; his eyes were hard and desperate, fixed on something outside in the hallway that Conan could not see.  "What about the girl?  You can't take her with you if you run—" he demanded, his voice harsh."

The madman outside in the hallway laughed shrilly_.  "**Don't**…_ try to tell me what I **_can_** and **_can't_** do…..  She'll be _just fine_ unless I see you again.  Now shut up—and stay where you are."  The clatter of his shoes as he backed down the hallway was clear—as was Ayumi's small shuffling and her faint sniffles, dying away slowly into the distance.

Mouri waited there, crouched behind the doorjamb and still clutching his burden; Conan lay still, one thought repeating itself over and over in his battered brain:  _Godammit, don't you hurt her!_

Two minutes went by, three, then four, then—

No more sound from the hallway.  No, actually there _had_ been a sound, something that the boy had unconsciously ignored in the worries of the moment but could now hear clearly…..  As Mouri-san stood up again shakily to stagger out the doorway, Rin broke past him to run forward to the two figures that lay on the floor making the soft, gasping sounds that Conan was just now noticing-----

Kisaki Eri, who lay on her side in a pool of blood with Suzuki Sonoko slumped over her.

***************************************************************************

The next few minutes were as confused as the previous ones had been; from his viewpoint within Mouri's grasp, Conan could do little other than stay where he was and try weakly to remain conscious.  Things kept fading in and out; after his enforced confinement (he wondered how long it had really been) the noise and brightness of the hallway was dizzying.  Or maybe that was the concussion?  

He bit back a sharp gasp as he was handed over roughly into someone else's hands as Mouri tore out of the doorway into the hall.  Maybe he _was unconscious; yeah, that sounded good.  Maybe he was just dreaming that Ayumi-kun had been grabbed up by Ojiwa, or that he had just been passed to….. _

…..oh, _no way; no, he HAD to be dreaming, this clinched it…..  Even Ojisan wouldn't be so utterly, mind-numbingly stupid as to give him to—but he didn't __know, did he?  __*This would be humiliating if it wasn't so damned serious.*_

Strong hands placed his lightweight form gently on the floor, propping him up against a box; Hei-san's rather bland brown eyes stared quizzically down at him, mouth quirking up at one corner ever so faintly despite the situation in the hall.  "Glad to have you back… Conan-kun," murmured the janitor; at the boy's widened eyes he shook his head a trifle, quickly touching one finger to his lips.  "Later—got bigger things to worry about than that right now….."

Well, at least they agreed on _something.  Eri-san and Sonoko-----  _

From where he lay, he could just see that Sonoko was sitting up, one hand to her upper arm; blood was leaking between her fingers and her voice was shaking and strained as she said that she was all right, that it was just a little scratch, that was all…..  But Eri-san made no sound other than her harsh breathing.  Mouri was crouched over her, still cursing steadily—Conan thought he saw her move—  Yes, her hand was gripping his; she was trying to talk.

_*Ojiwa you absolute **bastard--***_

* * *

Rin smoothed her mother's disheveled hair back from her forward for the hundredth time as the others worked on stopping the bleeding; Agasa-san held a makeshift compress against the wound in her back (God, there was so _much blood!) and the woman bit back a groan as the scientist shifted his grip.  Beside her Sonoko held back her own sobs, trying not to flinch as Ai tightened the bandage on her arm.  The blonde young woman's face was tear-streaked; she had been creased by one of the bullets fired towards the storage room as she tried to shield Eri's body in what might have been considered an uncharacteristic move for Sonoko if one were to be uncharitable.  She leaned forward to touch Rin's shoulder with her good hand.  "I-is she going to be okay?"  Her voice was shaking._

Rin's own voice sounded distant to her ears, oddly calm.  "The Professor thinks so—he says it's enough to one side to have missed most of her vital organs….."  She ran her fingers through her mother's hair again, wondering why she herself felt so cold.  It was her _mother that had gotten hurt, her mother and Sonoko and Shinichi, not her; why should she feel cold?_

She wished Shinichi could hold her right now; she was shaking.

Rin could see him, lying there on the floor through the storage room's doorway; Hei-san was with him.  _*Good—he won't let anything else happen to him--*  It was all a little too much; her mother, wounded and bleeding… Sonoko bleeding and trying to be brave… Shinichi, no, __Conan lying on the floor so pale and weak… Ayumi-kun—_

_*Ayumi----*_

"Rin-kun?"  The scared voice belonged to Mitsuhiko, who was hovering behind the Professor with Genta looming over his shoulder.  Both boys were white-faced and frightened; "You're… crying.  Conan-kun—he's gonna be all right, isn't he?" ventured Mitsuhiko, his freckles standing out like ink-spots on his pale cheeks.  "Isn't he?"

She nodded, wiping at her eyes with the back of one hand (she hadn't even realized that she had been crying until that moment).  "We have to get him to a hospital, and my—my obasan, too—she's been shot.  Sonoko-kun as well."  Distantly she marveled at how calm she sounded to herself just then.  

The two boys sagged in relief, then looked at each other in determination.  "Okay, then—let's go!"

Rin's world wobbled a little as she tried to stand up.  "Uhhh?  Go?  Go where??"

Genta tugged her to her feet; his round face looked remarkably serious.  "To _catch the bad guy, of course," he stated as if it should have been obvious.  "He's got Ayumi-kun, so we gotta go get her back."  Mitsuhiko grabbed her by the other arm, towing her towards the hallway with a grim look on his young face._

_*I can't leave my mom or Shinichi!  And these're just—just KIDS, no matter how smart they are—what do they think they're doing?!?* She sputtered, trying to find words that her shell-shocked mind refused to come up with.  Nothing—she was temporarily as mute as Conan, who had apparently heard them and was now trying weakly and frantically to speak._

Oddly enough, it was Professor Agasa that saved the situation.  "Wait, wait—Mitsuhiko-kun?  Genta-kun?  I need you to do something else instead, something very _important---"  The boys paused in their efforts to drag Rin down the hall; the smaller boy cocked his head curiously to one side.  "What?"  _

The grey-hair scientist grunted as he helped to ease Eri-san back against the hallway wall as Sonoko hovered over her worriedly; the wounded woman hissed in pain and Rin jerked as if _she had been shot.  Kisaki Eri closed her eyes briefly, but opened them to meet her daughter's half-frantic gaze.  "It's all right, Ra—Rin-chan; I'm okay.  Please….. do what the Professor tells you to."  She attempted a smile; it came out more as a grimace, but Rin relaxed a trifle in her friends' grasps._

Agasa cleared his throat, glancing sideways at STORAGE-3B's doorway; Hei-san and Mouri were conferring in low voices while Conan lay still with his eyes fixed on the kids.  The boy's face was very white, but he looked slightly better than he had when he'd been first brought out of his prison.   _*Too many distractions,* thought the Professor as he tried to wrench his mind back to the three small figures that were currently staring up at him; __*must keep my mind on track.  Poor Ran-chan's so pale…..*_

"Genta-kun, do you remember how you carried Conan-kun on your back when he got shot in that cave?"  The large boy nodded, eyes brightening.  "Do you think you could do that again?  We need to get these three to a safe place where the ambulance can pick them up—I can carry Eri-san and Sonoko can walk, but someone needs to carry Conan.  Well?"  He raised his bushy eyebrows.

"But—but _Ayumi-kun-----!!"  The two boys looked at each other, their faces distressed.  Between them Rin closed her eyes, fighting down a sudden surge of nausea at the thought of her young friend in the hands of that—that—_

She couldn't think of something horrible enough to call him.

The Professor shook his head sternly.  "Let Mouri-san deal with that— and it looks like Hei-san'll be helping too."  At that Conan tried to sit upright, a slightly horrified look in his unfocused eyes; the faintest of grins seemed to flicker across the Janitor's face, but he nodded firmly.  

Mouri-san just grunted, still kneeling beside his wife.  "Will you be okay, Eri?  I want to stay here—but—"  He looked disgusted and angry, a vein throbbing visibly in his forehead.  "Bastard's got a hostage—can't let him get away with that or she'll end up like that kid—"  At Agasa's warning "Harrumph!" he stopped, shaking his head.

Kisaki Eri tried to smile again, pain tightening her eyes as she gripped her husband's hand with her stained fingers.  "Go get her away from him," she murmured, her voice thin; "Go get her and _nail him for me.  I'll be all right."  She huddled a little tighter over herself, muttering "…glad he used a small caliber gun….."  Sonoko checked her bandage anxiously, her white face strained.  "The bleeding looks like it's stopped," she reported, clasping her wounded arm with her good hand.  The young woman had a smear of blood across her nose, either Eri's or her own, and her eyes were huge._

Mouri knelt beside his wife, stock-still for a long moment; from the terrible expression on his face he was reliving old memories.  Rin—no, _Ran whispered "Mom….."  The two boys stared at her in confusion, and Genta said tentatively "Um, Rin-kun?  Are you— okay?"_

"She *will* be, once we get moving."  The quiet voice made everyone jump slightly; they had forgotten Haibara Ai, who stood a little ways off down the hall.  Her dark blonde head was tilted to one side as she listened, absentmindedly scraping at Sonoko's blood where it stained her hands from her bandaging.  After a moment she glanced back at Mouri Kogoro.  "Ojiwa's in the lunchroom, I think; the doors going in squeak rather loudly, and I _believe I just heard them."  She dusted her hands together unconsciously.  "If you wish to find him, I'd go quickly before he leaves the grounds.  And as for the rest of us….. the Professor is right; we can't do much more here, and these three do need an ambulance."  She indicated Eri, Sonoko and Conan with an inclination of her chin, arms crossed.  Sonoko opened her mouth to protest that she felt fine, but shut it quickly at a flashing glance from the small scientist._

Rin struggled with her emotions for a moment, torn between wanting to stay with her mother and Shinichi and the desire to help her friend; then all the tension seemed to go out of her small frame.  The girl's thin shoulders slumped and she gave a sigh.  "I'm… fine, Genta-kun.  Let's go…..  Ummm, O-Ojisan?"  Her father blinked and turned away from where he had been staring down at Eri.  "Hrmph?"   With unexpected gentleness he helped to lift his wife into Agasa's arms; she gritted her teeth against the pain of movement, but managed not to cry out.  "What?" he said, staring down distractedly at the places where Eri's blood had stained his clothes.

_"Please be careful."_

Mouri Kogoro paused—then nodded, dark eyes narrowing.  "Hei-san, ready?  Let's g—_huh?  Now __where the hell did that idiot go?!?"  The distant sound of a door closing a little ways down the hall was his only answer; Hei-san had slipped past them all in the blink of an eye and disappeared, presumably hot on Ojiwa's trail.  For a second or two the detective looked as if her were going to blow his top; then his brows lowered and he nodded shortly.  "Guy's got the right idea—I'm not doing any good sitting around here on my thumbs.  Agasa-san, take good care of everybody, okay?"  _

He stooped to pick up something from the floor; Eri's handbag swung incongruously from his large hands as he fished inside it, sliding the small handgun and extra clip out.  At Ran's gasp of surprise he merely glanced up, shrugging.  Eri's eyes widened a little, but her husband merely grunted in dark amusement and raised one black eyebrow.

"You didn't actually think I didn't _know you had this, did you?  Idiot; I may be lazy sometimes, but I'm not **stupid—and **__you're predictable."  Leaning forward, he kissed his wife very briefly on the temple; then Mouri Kogoro walked away quietly and quickly towards the lunchroom._

***************************************************************************

_*Scared—I'm scared—I'm so scared--*  Ayumi whimpered a little despite herself, despite all her intentions to be brave; the Bad Man's grip was tight, and it hurt her arm as he pulled her down the hall._

"Quiet."  He wasn't paying much attention to her other than keeping a good hold; maybe she could get away?

But—no.  One look at that scary face told the little girl that trying to get away would be a very, very bad thing to do.  Even the monsters in the late-night movies that she had snuck out of bed to watch didn't look as frightening as his face, all twisted up and red with anger.  Since she had begun helping to solve mysteries with the Detective Boys, Ayumi had seen many frightening things—dead bodies, real criminals, stuff that her young mind sometimes flinched away from…..

But the Bad Man who was dragging her down the hallway was worse, somehow; he had hurt her best friend Conan, he had hurt (and possibly killed, although it was hard to think about a kid her age getting murdered even though she knew it could happen) Toshiro-kun, and he was doing things with drugs.  _Everybody knew that drugs were very bad things—they talked about it in school._

Ojiwa-sensei was a teacher.  Teachers were, in her limited experience, good.  How could a teacher do such _bad things??_

  She whimpered again as the grip on her arm tightened and she stumbled a little.  They were moving faster now, almost running.  What if they were going too fast for her to be rescued?  She _was going to be rescued, wasn't she?  W__asn't she?_

The Bad Man turned his head and snarled at her in irritation.  "Pick up your feet, brat!"  The gun in his hand glinted evilly in the dim lighting of the deserted hallways, and Ayumi remembered how loud it had sounded a few minutes before.  If she didn't do what he said he would shoot her too, just like he had shot Rin-kun's Obasan…..

_*I don't want to get shot.  I don't want to get hurt or killed.  I want to get AWAY!!!*_

Tears began to slide down her cheeks as Ayumi struggled to keep up, literally running for her life.

***************************************************************************

Across the school's rooftops a shadow flitted, scarcely there at all; despite the sunlight of afternoon a watcher would have been hard put to trace the shadow's progress, it moved so quickly.  A recessed door leading into one of the school's many attics opened and shut, and all was quiet once again.

***************************************************************************

_***Creeeeeeak***……._

Mouri Kogoro glanced at the ceiling above him; the noise had been very faint, but it had made him jump like a gunshot.  _*Gunshot.  Huh; not a good thing to think about right now.  Eri…..  Didn't want to leave Eri, but there was nothing I could do around her except lose my mind.  And that little Ayumi girl needs my help more; Eri said to go herself.  So why do I feel like such a louse?*  He cursed mentally, grinding his teeth._

_*Damn, that kid—Kudo, I mean—he looked almost like a corpse himself, coming out of that box all bloody-headed and scraped up.  Ojiwa has a lot to answer for….. not that I care about what happens to Kudo—I  just want Ran to be happy, so the boy has to stay alive.  Right.*_

Another creaking sound overhead made him look up once more; old buildings, they were always making odd noises.  These sounded almost like footsteps, light and fast…..  Pigeons, probably.

As Mouri edged around a hallway corner, he sniffed the air and his brows drew down blackly.  _Gunpowder.  Someone had fired a gun in the vicinity very, very recently.  And there was another scent underneath the heavy carbon-stink, a thick wet scent that he thought he recognized….._

Nodomo-san's office door stood open---  Cautiously the detective slid along the wall and peered through the doorway.

One look was enough.

  Nodomo-san…..  Ojiwa had already been here to tidy up loose ends.  Mouri swallowed, a trickle of sweat running down the length of his throat to seep into his collar.  _*Bastard.  Bloody bastard.  Hope this happened before he got hold of the girl.*_

Yeah, the girl.  What _was he going to do when he found Ojiwa, anyway?  He couldn't let the murderer know he was being stalked—you didn't risk a hostage like that.  It'd all depend on whether or not he got a chance for a good, clean shot.  Pity he was going to have to shoot the man right in front of little Ayumi, but there was no other way._

First things first; he had to _find the bastard.  Mouri-san gripped his wife's gun a little tighter and crept further down the hallway, moving as silently as possible.  Above him the faint sounds paused, then continued on._

***************************************************************************

Ojiwa Ryu laughed to himself through the edged, whirling clarity that had become his world.  Everything was so _simple now, oh yes; he knew what was going on.  He was sharp as a knife—they couldn't pull anything over on __HIM, never.  He'd take care of them __all._

The little brat he was dragging through the hallways, she was his ticket out of trouble; he had a couple of boxes full of beautiful little bags of white powder out in the car, the stuff that made everything so clear for him…  Not that crap that the flunkies were selling, cut twice over with chemicals from the school lab supplies or poison from the supermarket.  No, this was the pure stuff, the _real stuff.  He could get away and sell it somewhere else to somebody who'd take the fall if they got caught (not him, not him, never him.  He was invincible)._

_("………ojiwa…………")_

It was _all so clear.  He could almost hear the stuff whispering to him in a soft, sweet voice; could feel the rush in his veins all over again, burning….. burning….._

Everything burned away under the drug's kiss, everything—and he was going to _win this little battle.  Nobody could stop him.  He'd kill them ****__ALL__._

_("………hey, ojiwa…………")_

Ojiwa Ryu laughed again and lengthened his stride as they exited through the lunchroom's far door, his grip tightening on his hostage's thin wrist; the child whimpered and tried to keep up.  His heart thundered in his ears, beating like fists on flesh—thud-thud, thud-thud, thud-THUD, THUD-THUD---

_("………Ojiwa……over here, sensei……")_

_What was THAT__???  He jerked to a stop so suddenly that the girl slid in her stockinged feet and almost fell.  Where---??_

Nothing.  Just the echoes inside his head.  Nothing.  The science teacher wiped sweat from his forehead with the hand holding the gun, eyes darting around the dim corridor.  With an inarticulate grunt he continued on down the hall, dragging the child behind him.

Overhead the softest of footsteps whispered, following.

***************************************************************************

"Conan-kun, are you getting_ fatter?  'Cause you feel a lot heavier than you did before….." grunted Genta, shifting his burden around a little on his back.   _

His burden did not reply—all his attention was turned on trying to keep his head from flying apart into a thousand pieces.  _*God, Genta, can't you move a little more smoothly?  I can feel every crack in the tiles—this is like riding a car with bad shocks.*  Conan bit back a pained gasp as his friend stopped a little too fast at a wave from Mitsuhiko, who was ranging ahead like a two-legged hunting dog.  The freckled boy peered carefully around a corner, then waved his companions on; their charge bit his lip as movement from the body carrying his started a distinct, rhythmic throbbing in the depths of his skull.  __*Aaaaghh…..*  Spots danced in front of his eyes._

A hand brushed along his forehead, drawing his hair back from where it had tangled over his face; blinking, he felt more than saw that Rin was right beside them, her worried dark gaze fixed on his own.  As he leaned his head against the back of Genta's, Conan tried to smile for her through the headache, the vast relief that had been tightening his chest ever since his release warming him all through.  _*Ran… Rin…  I was so afraid I'd never see you again…..*  His lips shaped the words he was currently unable to say, and she smiled at him through her worry._

She was so beautiful.  _So beautiful.  Even with those damned spots dancing between them…..  __*Got to get my voice back, Ran, so I can tell you.  So many things I want to tell you.  Like… like how much you still look like yourself right at this moment, no matter how small you are now; like how much I'm looking forward to watching you grow up all over again.  Like how strong and capable you are—and how glad I am that you found me.*   Something of what he was feeling must have shown in his eyes in that moment—Rin blushed like a rose as she watched him._

Beside them both, Ai smiled to herself; and if the smile had a certain wistfulness and regret to it, only she knew.

A gasp from ahead made his head jerk upright with rather painful results; Mitsuhiko and Rin had been playing lookouts for the small party, with the boy taking point and Rin the rear.  Now Mitsuhiko-kun had stopped dead still in the hall, a perplexed look on his freckled face.  "Ummmmm….. ?"

"What's wrong?"  Professor Agasa panted slightly as he leaned against the wall, Eri cradled carefully against him (he was finding it tough going, considering his bulk).  The graying scientist peered towards his small charge anxiously.  "Do you see anything?"

"N-no……."  The boy's voice was tremulous, unsure; Rin moved up to stand beside the thin boy, frowning.  "Mitsuhiko-kun?"  The gradeschooler's brows were drawn down in a ferocious scowl of concentration.  "I—I _heard something, I think—like somebody shouting, maybe?  I'm not sure….."  He shivered.  Grey shadows stretched off to either side of the intersection; halls usually familiar and filled with children were made dim and frightening by tension, and Rin hesitated as she looked left and right.  "Which way should we go?"_

The young boy beside her bit his lip.  "If we go _that way, we'll come out on the playground….. but if we go __that way we can get to the front of the school quicker.  It's just….. I think those noises came from there."_

Rin looked back towards Conan, who shifted uneasily on Genta's back; his face was white with pain and weariness, but the unfocused blue eyes were narrowed as he tried to think.  She could feel her heart pounding as she considered what to do…..  _*I want to go after Ayumi-chan, but we need to get Mom and the others to an ambulance—if only one of the offices were unlocked, we could call for one!  But they're not, so…  I guess we should stay away from the main entrance and skirt around through the playground; that ought to be safest.*  Stepping back a little, she motioned to the others to follow._

***************************************************************************

Ojiwa Ryu was _NOT a happy man right at that moment._

Distractions, distractions, distractions…..  He plowed down the hallway through the unlit dimness, still dragging his small hostage behind him; she was keeping quiet for the most part, her occasional whimpers and gasps of pain kept to a minimum.

Good; if the little brat made too much noise, he'd shut her up permanently.  He could always get another.  Ojiwa laughed to himself—or was it out loud?  He couldn't tell and didn't care—the bright fuse that the drug had set burning in his brain left no room for minor considerations like _that._

_*Little bastards are a yen a dozen, too many of 'em all over the place anyway, doing the world a favor wasn't I?  Should go after them, clean things up a bit, make them pay for making me work so hard yeah I work too hard, Little bastards, always making me look over my shoulder*_

(A noise made him jump; something overhead—there had been so *many* little noises, voices whispering at him in the hallways--- Nodomo's voice _(no, no, he was dead) and that little brat he'd locked in the cabinet—he'd gotten a quick glimpse of the boy earlier, so he knew he was alive…)_

_*pity the little bastard didn't die, well I can fix that and I will, too--- can't leave loose ends, gotta fix this, do it RIGHT*_

(More noises:  …….."ojiwa"…………  He stopped, throwing his head back to let out a snarl that was nearly a howl; the little girl in his sweating grasp cringed away, tears streaming down her face.**__**

****

**_"WHERE ARE YOU?!?"_**_  But only the echoes replied.  He snarled again in frustration and slammed his way on down the hall.)_

_*Fix them all, kill them all when I find them especially those little brats this is all their fault, wouldn't have to leave if they didn't get in the way screw things up little bastards little bastards LITTLE BASTARDS KILL THEM ALL-----*_

**_………"Ojiwa-sensei---"………._**

He turned, pointing the gun behind him, and saw---

---oh, he _saw---_

_*noNo**NOyou'redeadyou'redeadyou'redeadIkilledyouIkilledyouIkilledyoumyselfYoucan'thurtme---whereareyou???***_

The hall was empty again.

Ojiwa Ryu screamed a long, chilling scream and tore on down the hallway with his hostage in hand, looking for something he could kill.

***************************************************************************

As Rin moved quietly through the dimly-lit corridors, a thought occurred to her; just how had she ended up in front?  Behind her the rest of the small group continued on as silently as possible, their footsteps near-soundless on the worn tiles.  _*Just a little further—once we're out of the building we can follow the fence around to the parking lot, and then we can cross the street and use a phone in one of the shops or even maybe flag a driver with a cell-phone down--*_

_***** click-click *****_

The girl's footsteps faltered to a halt; there had been a _noise.  What---?_

….. and suddenly her mother, who had been keeping as still as possible in the Professor's sweating grasp, jerked upright: _"NO!!!  GET DOWN!!!"_

**_*BOOM!  BOOM-BOOM!!!*_**

****

_Gunshots.  Rin yelped, throwing herself against Mitsuhiko and knocking him to one side.  Sharp, staccato somethings impacted the wall, scattering plaster shards everywhere; behind her, the girl heard Agasa-san's startled grunt and Sonoko's little yip of terror as they backpedaled down the hallway.  A shout of __"Run, Ran!  Just go!"  made her grab at Mitsuhiko's arm, yanking him along with her—she had already been passed by Genta, who was doing a respectable sprint with Conan bouncing painfully on his back._

Even as she ran, heart banging against her ribs in fear, Rin turned her head to get a shaky glimpse of the Professor, Sonoko, Ai-chan and her mother heading back the way they had come.  _*God please don't let Ojiwa go after my mom again, please don't let him shoot her again, please don't let him---*  Her incoherent thoughts thudded in time with her footsteps---_

**_*BOOM!  BI-DOWWW!!!*_****  A badly-aimed shot ricocheted off an overhead beam as the small party fled around a corner in a skidding curve; her breath half-sobbing in her throat, Rin's mind flashed thankfully on the fact that the murderer seemed to be pursuing _them, not her mother and the others._**

Not that this was a good thing, necessarily—but at least _they could still run._

_Thud-slap-thud-thud-thud-slip-skid-thud-thud-thud---_

_*run*run*run*run*run*_

Mad laughter sounded behind them, accompanied by heavy footfalls and a smaller, half-pattering-half-sliding sound—Ayumi, no doubt, being dragged along by one wrist.  _"That's right, you little brats—keep running!  You'll just die tired!"   The shout echoed through the corridors. __ Beside Rin Genta let out a strangled cry as he stumbled and nearly went down, only catching his balance at the last moment; Conan clung grimly onto his back, legs locked tightly around the larger boy's ample waist._

_Thud-thud-thud-stumble-slip-thud-thud-thud-thud---  Mitsuhiko was racing ahead of them like a hare, the thin boy could __move when he wanted to— where was the exit to the playground?!?  As they ran, Ojiwa was coming up behind them again, not even bothering to shoot now---_

_*run*run*run*run*run*_

Mitsuhiko smacked hard into the right-hand door at the end of the hall, slamming it open and holding it in place as his friends shot through, then racing after them as if on wheels while the door shut behind him with a loud _clack.  The sudden glare of afternoon sunlight made them all squint and slow down, half-blinded after the dimness of the school; his face filled with terror, Genta looked wildly around.  "Where'll we go?  Where'll we go??  Conan-kun, what'll we do??" he asked, forgetting that his burden could not currently speak._

But he could point; a wavering arm caught Rin's shoulder, turning her to look towards…..

Rin grabbed both his and Mitsuhiko's arms, pulling them both along towards the only haven she could see at the moment.  _"THERE!  We can hide inside---"  She towed them in the direction of the small brick structure that stood less than twenty meters away.  __*God, don't let the doors be locked—oh, that's right, they don't lock, guess the teachers are afraid the kids'll shut themselves inside---*_

As they scurried across the playground, they heard the door slam open again, crashing against the outer wall.  Laughter bounced shrilly around the hallway and emerged mad and distorted through the open door…

…accompanied by a small whimpering:  Ayumi-chan, still trying to be brave.

Almost the kids paused at that, almost—but Rin jerked at her friends' wrists, dragging them as quickly as possible behind her into the haven that beckoned before her.  At the doorway, however, both boys shot her appalled looks of dismay; it took the sound of the rapid steps crossing the ground behind them to make them dart inside and brace the door with a heavy trash-can.  Fortunately it was sound enough (and, more importantly, _tall enough) to wedge under the doorknob so that the entrance was thoroughly blocked even for an adult's strength.  That wouldn't matter much to bullets, though---_

Panting winded, Mitsuhiko leaned over, hands flat against his thighs.  "Rin-kun… did we… _have to hide… in the __Girl's Room?" he asked plaintively.  Beside him Genta-kun gasped for breath, too winded to add his own obvious dismay; on his back, Conan almost smiled._

_*Any… port in a… storm, Mitsuhiko-kun…*_  He was finding it hard to keep on track—the pounding in his head was worse than ever.  _*Must be all the… jostling around…  Not that… I'm not grateful, guys…..*_  Mitsuhiko's expression was a good distraction from the dizziness and throbbing—the kid kept squinting nervously around the dreaded Girl's Bathroom as if afraid to see something he shouldn't see.

But Rin wasn't paying attention at that moment; she was, instead, listening to the sound of steps coming up to the door.  Grabbing her friends' hands again, she pulled them back to the farthest corner of the small room where they huddled together, waiting.

***************************************************************************

**_Gunfire!_****  Mouri Kogoro cursed out loud, spinning wildly in the intersection of two hallways as he tried to make out where the echoing sounds had come from.  _That way---  He pelted in the direction of the shots, all thoughts of caution thrown to the wind._**

_*Not gonna let you get away with shooting MY WIFE, you bloody **bastard---***_

Somewhere not too far ahead a door opened with a crash; insane laughter echoed against tiled halls.

Clutching his gun, Mouri ran faster.

***************************************************************************

***WHAMMMM!!!  WHAMMM-BAMM!!!  BWHAM-BWHAMMMM-WHAM!!!***

The small room vibrated with the sounds of Ojiwa's attempts to shoulder-in the door.  He snarled a broken stream of obscenities as he slammed his body again and again against the metal bathroom door, making the children crouching inside flatten themselves against the wall as far away as possible.

Slumped on the floor, Conan struggled to push himself upright.  _*Goddammit, Ojiwa—why the hell are you chasing us still?  You could leave Ayumi behind and make it over the fence—why are you still after us?  There's gotta be a reason-----*_

Above his head he heard Ran—Rin—take a deep breath as she pulled something out of her pocket.  "I've still got the disk—the one Nodomo-san gave me" she whispered; "If—if I gave it to him, do you think he'd go away?  It's not worth your lives---"

***WHAMM-WHAMM-WHAMMM!!!  BWHAM!***  The continued pounding made her flinch, and beside her Genta shivered and pressed himself a little further back into his corner.

_*Disk?  Nodomo-san?*_  The boy tilted his head painfully back, trying to make out what she held.  It was hard; his vision kept blurring.  A computer disk…..  _*Nodomo must've loaded something incriminating on there—but I wonder if Ojiwa even knows Rin has it?  I doubt it'd matter much to him, the way he is right now.*_  Conan reached up, tugging at her jacket; at her inquiring look he shook his head a little, pointing towards the door with one hand and making a small spinning motion towards his head with the other.

She took his meaning instantly:  Ojiwa was insane, far too crazed at this point to care about disks or incriminating information or anything else other than eliminating the target that he had become fixated on:

Them.

***BWHAMM!!  BAM-BAM-BWHAMMMMM!!!***  The trashcan was beginning to bend…..

***************************************************************************

_"……..Ojiwa….. hey, Ojiwa-sensei……."_

_"Over HERE, Ojiwa…………… no, over HERE…………"_

The man screamed in frustration, wheeling away from the bathroom door to stare wildly about the playground; where the hell were those voices _coming from?!?_  Sometimes they were Nodomo's, sometimes they were that little brat-boy's, sometimes he didn't know them--- but he could hear them from EVERYWHERE---

They were driving him _insane._  He had to stop them, just like he had to stop the little devils, the little bastards he had trapped just on the other side of the door---

Ojiwa Ryu drew back to slam his shoulder again against the barrier; he could feel whatever was blocking it beginning to shift, beginning to slide, beginning to fail…

_*and then you're all MINE you little bastards I'll take care of you and then the girl Then I'll get away scott-free But first I'll--*_

_"…..Ojiwa….. over HERE……."_

He swung around, just in time to see something move at the corner of his vision; before he was even thinking about it he was firing—

**_*BOOM!!  BOOMBOOMBOOM!!!  BOOMBOOM!!!*_**  --at something that shot behind the small brick building so fast that he wasn't sure he had really seen it at first---

_*But of course I did, they're all after me everybody is of course they are I'll kill them all I'll KILL THEM ALL*_

His hand was shaking as it held the gun—why was it shaking?  Why was he so hot?  Must be the drug—he needed more of the drug, his sweet white powder—  And after this was all over he'd take care of that.  Business first, then pleasure…..  No, killing those little bastards would be a distinct pleasure.  The thought made him giggle.

More bullets; he would need more ammunition to kill the little devils when he got the door open.  One little devil, two little devils, three little devils, four--- that was okay, he had a _lot_ of clips in his pockets and even a surprise or two, he had come prepared.  The science teacher fumbled with his gun, ejecting the used clip onto the ground and sliding a new one into place—

***************************************************************************

_He had dropped her wrist; the Bad Man had let go of her._  For one long second Ayumi froze.

He was doing something with his gun, and he wasn't paying attention to her anymore; maybe she could---

But the Bad Man had raised his head again; his bloodshot eyes met hers, and for a ridiculous moment his face went blank, seeming almost startled that he had actually let her go.  He reached out—he was moving so _slowly….._

_(but suddenly, suddenly Ayumi was remembering how Conan-kun had looked coming out of the storage room, how white and frail her friend had seemed.  She was remembering how she had felt when Ai had told her that Conan had probably been locked away by Ojiwa-sensei; and she was remembering how Rin-kun's face had looked when she had seen her obasan lying bleeding and in pain on the hallway floor.  It was all Ojiwa-san's fault, all of it, and he had hurt Conan-kun so BADLY that he couldn't even TALK)_

_(and suddenly, suddenly Ayumi was thinking about how much she had been afraid, how much Ojiwa-sensei's tight grasp on her wrist had HURT as she was dragged through the schools, stumbling and falling down and being shouted at and jerked along like a toy that wasn't working right, or a bad dog on a leash)_

_and suddenly, suddenly Yoshida Ayumi was ANGRY._

And as he grabbed her sleeve so he could DRAG HER AWAY AGAIN, she twisted violently out of his reach---

---and she **_kicked_** him in the shins as hard as she could.

**"AAAGH!!!"**

The Bad Man howled, dropping forward for a moment to grab at his legs, and Ayumi stumbled backwards, almost falling; _*He'll get me again—I want to get away--- PleaseOhPlease don't grab me again!  Pleasedon't---*_

---but then (so _fast!)_ she felt hands come from behind her, catching her waist and yanking her backwards and around the corner of the building as a sudden shower of playground sand was kicked up and past her into the Bad Man's face; he snarled out some bad words and jerked back and away as she was whisked off the ground and---

_*Somebody's GOT me—it's not the Bad Man—somebody's **SAVED me!!!---***_

Before she knew it a door was opening and Ayumi found herself being gently pushed into the cool darkness of a small room by strong, grownup's hands.  "You stay here, okay Ayumi-chan?  Don't go anywhere, no matter what…" said the soft, half-breathless voice of her rescuer as the door closed.  Ayumi gulped a deep breath, too stunned by the suddenness of her rescue to even think of a reply.  The door clicked shut almost silently, and she was suddenly alone.

Alone and _free; not with the Bad Man anymore.  She was **_SAFE__._  It was almost too much for her seven-year-old nerves to take; she kept taking deep, shuddering breaths until her head rang with dizziness.  The litany of a single word sang through Ayumi's mind over and over:  _Safe, safe, safe, safe, safe-----_**___

But…… who had saved her?  She hadn't seen his face, but he had almost sounded like….. _somebody she had met once before a few months ago, on the balcony outside her room.  Somebody she would never forget.  Dazed, Ayumi pushed her tangled hair back from her face, remembering the lightest touch of lips to the back of her hand, the soft voice murmuring _Goodnight, little miss_ just before he flew away like a white dove into the darkness….._

But never mind.  _She was SAFE._  As gunfire began again outside Ayumi slowly slid down to sit on the tiles, tears of thanksgiving and terror running down her cheeks in the cool darkness of the playground Boy's Room.

***************************************************************************

Hei-san smiled in fierce satisfaction as he ghosted soundlessly along the furthest wall of the small brick building.  Well, _that was taken care of….. time for the Grand Finale.  He could damn well use something to distract Ojiwa, though, something to draw his attention—where the __HELL was Mouri-tantei, anyway?  Detectives and cops, they were like buses—never there when you wanted 'em, and then three or four would come along all at once…_

He wouldn't mind a few right now, what with all the gunshots pinging off the brickwork just around the corner.  It was enough to make a person appreciate his regular line of work; at least the people who usually shot at _him were the Good Guys, not berserker whacko drug-dealers with chips on their shoulders.  Maybe waiting for Mouri would be a good idea?  His head was thick enough to make a good shield--_

Slipping a handful of steel ball-bearings from his sleeve (that little foray he had made into the maintenance supplies had sure been a good idea), he shook his head and smiled a bit wryly to himself.  _*Uh huh.  Like I'm gonna wait for a detective to show up?  Suuuure….. and pigs with monocles are circling Tokyo International Airport on little white hang-gliders right now, too…..*_

The Janitor slid a little further down the wall, looking for a good angle of attack; it was going to take more than skill to finish out this performance—it was going to take a little _luck_ as well.  _*And maybe I'd better do a few more 'voices' to keep the Whacko off balance, too; let's see—what've I got up my sleeve?*_

***************************************************************************

_*Easy now…..*  Mouri Kogoro edged carefully around a tree behind the Jungle Gym, eyes fixed on his goal—the small brick building at the edge of the playground.  Ojiwa-san had really lost it, really gone around the bend—the man was slamming his shoulder against the bathroom door over and over again, jerking that poor little Ayumi kid along with him with every move.  The little girl was holding up pretty well from what he could see—but the science teacher—_

_*Complete nutcase.  Dangerous nutcase.  Never mind that, though….. c'mon, Kogoro—just like when you were a rookie cop, just like in training—nice and slow.  If he doesn't know you're there, he probably won't shoot you.  Probably.*   He checked his gun; full clip in place, ready to go—it'd been a long time since he had carried a gun; bad memories niggled at the edges of his thoughts, dark and edged with regret._

Never mind the memories; thinking too much could get you killed.  He'd always believed _that._

_*Okay….. let's get to the next tree, the one over by the slides.  Quit worrying about it and just DO it, dammit!*  And Mouri was away, moving with a quickness and quietness that would have surprised his wife and daughter immensely, not to mention a certain smartass young resident detective.  Flattening himself against the bark, he jerked slightly at the sudden sound of sirens….._

_*What--??  Oh yeah, right—great, that's the ambulance for Eri and Kudo and the Suzuki girl.  Cops too.  But—ah, SHIT!!  Ojiwa'll panic, and he's got that Ayumi kid with him--- shit, shit, SHIT!!!  Better do something quick, or--*_

He dropped low, cursing silently as his back twinged on him _(*you're not getting any younger, you know that Kogoro?*); shooting across the playground at a fast clip, he skidded to a halt in a flurry of sand behind a bench and crouched there, peering between the wooden slats---_

_*---what the HELL?!?---*_

---just in time to see Hei-san sweep Ayumi up in one arm and dart behind and around the building as fast as a lizard.  Ojiwa looked to be loading a clip; he just stood there, mouth open, an utterly _*outraged* expression on his face-----_

And then he screamed bloody murder and started firing away wildly in the direction that the Janitor had gone (not that that was going to do him any good).  From his bench vantage point, Mouri watched as Hei-san scooted around _towards Ojiwa's back and along the same side, thrusting the girl into the other bathroom.  The man moved unbelievably fast---_

_*-----never seen ANYBODY move like that-----*_

---and every movement was precise, perfect as a performance.  Once the girl was inside he whisked himself around a corner and out of sight so rapidly he was barely more than a blur; and then he was just—gone.  Gone.

For one long moment the detective could do nothing but goggle at what he had just seen; then the reality of the change in circumstances hit home, and he grinned a shark-toothed grin full of teeth and bristling moustache.  _*Where's your hostage NOW, Ojiwa-san?? Huh??  Who's got the upper hand NOW???*   In his excitement Mouri's head shot up just a little too high above the bench and---_

***BI-DOWWW!!! BOOM-BOOM!!!***

_*@#$#!!!  The bastard's shooting at me again!!!*  He yelped audibly as an impact sent a shower of splinters all over him.  __*@#$#@#!!!*  He was in deep shit *now*, no doubt about it—Ojiwa had found himself a shiny new target.  From where Mouri crouched he could see his beet-red, sweating face as the madman drew down on him and sighted, grinning like a skull while his finger tightened on the trigger---_

**_***THWACK!!!  THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!!!***  __Now what?!?  More shooting—_**

Something silver and spherical rolled across the sidewalk in front of the reeling Ojiwa—somebody was throwing something at him with deadly accuracy (_marbles?  Who the hell would be throwing __marbles at a murderer??)  Mouri gaped, looking up just in time to catch sight of Hei-san dodging back around his corner as another ****__***THWACK!!!*** resounded across the playground.  This time __Ojiwa ducked, cursing shrilly as he brought his gun around towards his tormenter to fire off another volley._

_*Sooner or later,* thought Mouri grimly, __*he's going to run out of bullets.  And when he does, he's MINE.*  _

As if a friendly Kami had been listening, a sudden dull **_click-click resounded across the playground; the madman with the gun hesitated, looking rather surprised—_**

Mouri half rose in triumph, ready to charge—

Around the corner came Hei-san, long arms outstretched and reaching—

_--and Ojiwa reached into his left-hand coat pocket with a triumphant howl, yanking the OTHER loaded gun out and bringing it around to fire at Hei-san—_

Who was, somehow, suddenly _not there….._

**_*@#$#@!!!* thought Mouri Kogoro, diving for cover._**

***************************************************************************

_*Huh, will you look at that?*_  Hei-san cursed softly to himself as he stared at the blood dripping from his fingers.  _*The whacko actually winged me.  Several hundred cops and detectives can't hit me no matter HOW close I am, but a drug-crazed maniac manages it first time off the bat.  He must have something against janitors.*_  It wasn't bad, just a deep score running the length of his outer forearm, but it would slow him down a bit.  Twisting his sleeve tightly around his arm helped to stop the bleeding; grimacing against the pain, he snuck another look around the corner.

**BI-DOWWW!!!**  The bullet ricocheted off the brickwork, leaving a sizeable gouge.  Hei-san cursed again and readied another ball-bearing.  _*Good thing I'm ambidextrous…*_

As he cocked his left arm back, he frowned for a moment; he could **swear** that he heard _voices_ coming out of the Little Boy's Room where he had left Ayumi-chan…..  But she had been all alone, hadn't she?

***************************************************************************

_*I want to go home…*_ whimpered the small girl.  She wished she was brave, as brave as Conan-kun had been when _he_ had been trapped in a small place—but she was SCARED and she wanted her MOM and she wanted to GO HOME RIGHT NOW…..

Ayumi sniffled, wiping the tears back from her face with the back of a smeared hand.  There was so much noise coming from outside, all sorts of bangs and booms and cracking noises--  She had heard gunfire a few times since she had become a detective; she knew that it didn't really sound like it did on TV.  Instead it was either a lot *louder* than you thought it should be, or a lot *duller*-- it wasn't always sharp and hard.  Sometimes it sounded like somebody hitting a futon with a really big stick, and sometimes it sounded like thunder.

_THIS_ sounded like the end of the world.  She trembled, pressing her small hands against her ears.  _*I WANT TO GO HOME!!!*_

"Hey!  Hey--- you're Ayumi-kun, right?"

Shocked, she twisted around so fast that she staggered from her kneeling position and fell over with a cry.  "!!!"

There was a _boy_ in here with her, sitting right beside her; Ayumi could hardly see him in the dimness, but she thought she recognized his voice_.  "T-Toshiro-kun???"_

He smiled at her, all thin freckled face and askew dark hair; the missing gradeschooler seemed awfully happy to see her.  "Uh-huh.  Did I get your name right?  I've seen you playing with Mitsuhiko-kun before and those other guys, the detective kids.  Are you okay?  I heard you crying….."  He seemed a little taken aback then, hesitating for a moment, staring.  "Um, Ayumi-kun—you're in the _Boy's Room_, you know?  I don't think you're supposed to be here-----"

Ayumi rubbed at her eyes again and hiccupped, trying to stop her tears.  "I want to go _HOME---_  I'm, I'm scared and I don't WANT to be here---"  More tears ran down her face, replacing the ones she had wiped away.  She noticed vaguely that the gunfire outside had stopped for the moment, but it would start up again—she knew it would.

The boy regarded her solemnly in the dim light; the narrow window in the tiny bathroom was so high up that little of the late afternoon sun's rays filtered in.  "I know how that feels; **_I_** wanted out too…..  You guys helped me, so I'll help _you_ now."   He took a deep breath, the tremulous note in his voice betraying his anxiety.  "Ojiwa-sensei—he's a very, very bad man, and he's done some really awful stuff.  Bad people ought to feel _sorry_ when they do bad stuff….. and he's not; he's not sorry at all."

The little girl nodded, still wiping at her eyes.  The boy beside her fished a wadded-up Kleenex out of one pocket and presented it without a word; she took it and used it to scrub her face as clean as possible.  When she had finished, Toshiro-kun climbed to his feet and offered a hand; Ayumi pulled herself up and attempted a wavery smile.  "I'm awfully glad you're all right; we were really worried about you…"

Her classmate hesitated, biting his lip.  "I—well, I'm _sort of_ okay and I'm sort of… not.  I think I have to go away after this is over with—I don't think I can stay here anymore."

Dusting off her knees and seat she regarded him with concern.  "Are you going to a new school, Toshiro-kun?"

He shrugged, looking a little unsure; "I….. *_guess*_ so…..  It's kinda hard to explain.  But it's okay, anyway; it's okay now."  And he grinned at her, looking a lot more cheerful than he had at first.

Then his thin face slid into a slightly scared, freckled resoluteness and he put his hand on the door-handle.  "You stay here—I'm gonna go outside and—"

Ayumi grabbed him by the arm.  "You CAN'T go outside!!  Ojiwa-sensei's got a gun and there's been a lot of _shooting_ and everything, and you'll get _hurt—"_  It had been quiet for a little while now, but—

Toshiro-kun pushed her gently back from the doorway.  "No I won't….. not anymore.  Shinichi-niisan said I've been hurt all I _CAN_ be hurt now, and nobody can do anything else to me _ever, ever again._"  He took a deep, shaky breath.  "A-and….. that means Ojiwa-sensei too.  Never, *_ever*_ again."  His smile began to find it's way back onto his face, and he shook his head at her.  "So you stay here 'til the others come and get you, okay?  You'll be all right."

Confused, Ayumi stared at the shadowed face before her; he sounded so… she didn't really understand how he sounded.  Almost happy, even though he was scared; almost scared, even though he was happy.  And-- _*Shinichi-niisan?  How does Toshiro-kun know him?  That's Ran-kun's boyfriend!* _ "O…kay, if you think I should—"

Toshiro-kun nodded, tugging at the door.  "Uh huh.  Bye, Ayumi-kun—thanks for helping me; tell Mitsuhiko I'm sorry I didn't get his flashlight back to him when I said I would, and—would you tell Suriyo-kun in the back of the class that he can have my Yaiba Special Collection hologram cards?  They're in my desk—I want to take them with me but I don't think I _can, so he can have 'em, okay?"_

She wrinkled her nose, wondering why he wasn't going to tell Suriyo himself.  "I—okay, I will, I guess….."

The boy smiled again.  "Thanks," he said quietly; then he slipped through the door out into the sunlight and was gone.

Slowly Ayumi stepped back from the entrance, sitting cross-legged back in her place on the tiles.  Tense and more than a little confused, she waited for the noise to begin again…..

***************************************************************************

_*Too quiet—it's way, way the hell too quiet.  WHAT is going on out there?*_

Conan cradled his head in his hands; the crashing at the door had stopped, and that was helping… but he still felt like his head was going to split in two at the first given opportunity.  Add that to the weary stiffness that pervaded every limb and you had a serious dose of misery.

_*Still, it could be worse; at least we're in a bathroom, even if it's the Girl's Bathroom.  I think I scandalized Genta and Mitsuhiko, though.*_  He had spent a long time locked up in that cabinet—and it hadn't included facilities.  _*Funny, the things that make you grateful; never thought that good plumbing'd be one of them.*_  Conan sighed and leaned his throbbing head back against the cool tiles of the wall.

Warm bodies sat to either side of him, Genta and Mitsuhiko to his left and Rin to his right; God, it was so _good_ to be free of that damned box!  But… he still wanted to know what was going on outside…..

Ojiwa Ryu had gone from savage attempts to break the door down to sudden shrieks of fury and rapid gunfire; there had been the sounds of something hard and non-bulletlike impacting on the building—no ideas about _that_ whatsoever—and then there'd been more careful shots, shots with a muttered accompaniment of unintelligible words from Ojiwa accompanying them.  It really sounded like the man's brain had melted down.

_*Paranoia, delusions, obsession….. whatever he's been taking, it isn't ordinary stuff.  It almost sounds like PCP, but-- *  _Too much thinking made his head hurt; the boy sighed and closed his eyes against the dim light.

Soft, cool fingers stroked his forehead, leaving comfort in their wake; he blinked dizzily up at Rin's face as she knelt by him with a dampened paper-towel.  "Are you okay?" she whispered, glancing furtively towards the now-silent door.  The boy tried to smile up at her; she was a blur in his damaged vision, but he could make out Rin's face well enough.  His lips formed the words that his bruised throat would not allow him to say:  _I'm okay—don't worry._  And she smiled down at him, making a faint face.  "'Don't worry'—right….."  Beside them Genta nudged Mitsuhiko in the side with an elbow; the two boys grinned at each other a little despite their situation.

They were, after all, still kids.  _*And right now I'm GLAD they're kids—an adult wouldn't bounce back nearly as well as a kid does.  Wonder how Rin and I score that way?  Right now I don't feel very Shinichi-ish—I just want this all to be over.*_

Too much thinking again; he was really looking forward to a long rest after all this was over….. preferably in a room with a _lot_ of windows and a door with no lock.  _*Not to mention light, lots of it.*  He squinted up longingly at the small window high up on the wall; kind of ironic, wasn't it?  Stuck back in a little room with a tiny window all over again, unable to get out-----  _

Conan felt sweat trickle down the side of his temple at the thought.  He'd never been claustrophobic before, neither as Conan nor as Shinichi; but it looked like he was about to start.  Somewhere deep inside him a young man shivered slightly at the thought of being confined.

Beside him Genta groaned a little as he clambered to his feet, stretching.  "Why's it so _quiet??" muttered the large gradeschooler in what he probably considered a whisper; he swiped irritably at his sweaty face, leaving a long smudge across one cheek._

Mitsuhiko staggered slightly as he also rose, dusting the seat of his pants off.  "I think my butt's gone to sleep—those tiles are _cold.  Rin-kun, can you see anything?"  His question was directed at the fourth small figure in the room, who was now climbing rather precariously up onto the sink in an effort to see out the window._

Balancing carefully on one foot, she frowned as she peered across the room; the builders had thoughtfully placed the sinks on the wall _away from the windows (probably to keep the bathroom's clients from doing just the sort of preadolescent acrobatics that Rin was doing right now).  "No….. nothing's moving out there that I can see---  I __wish I could actually reach the windows!"  She slithered back to the ground with a sigh… and then turned towards Genta, an arrested look on her face.  "Hmmmm…. Um, Genta-kun?  I don't suppose you could---"_

With an exaggerated sigh the tall boy walked over to the windows and bent over, making a stirrup with his hands.  He rolled his eyes as Rin hesitated, then gingerly clambered up to stand stocking-footed on his shoulders.  "How come I always have to be the one people climb on, huh?  How come I always have to carry people when they get hurt and reach for stuff nobody else can get and—"

Mitsuhiko grinned at him, arms folded.  "'Cause we all know you _can, Genta-kun."_

"Oh."  His friend looked mollified.  "Ow!  Watch it, Rin-kun—that's my ear you almost stepped on!"

"Sorry…" she apologized absently, clinging to the windowsill and shading her eyes against the low sun's rays.  "Can't see a thi—**_OH!!!"_**

***BI-DOWWW!!!*  **

Arms flailing, Rin fell over backwards with a horrified yelp, knocking Genta over to sprawl against Mitsuhiko, who went over on top of Conan--  For a moment there was nothing but a confusion of tangled limbs and dismayed cries; Conan struggled frantically to reach Rin _(*OhmyGod that was a gunshot, please don't be hurt, please--), who ended up huddling next to him, eyes wide and filled with shock.  In the dim light he could see that her face was dusted with fragments of shattered brick; "It—it hit __right next to my head—" she whispered, her skin ghostly white and beaded with a sudden sheen of sweat.  _

She seemed to be okay _(ThankYou, some part of his mind whispered); Conan realized with a total lack of embarrassment that he was half-sprawled across her, shielding her with his small body as much as possible from the barrage of gunfire that was suddenly erupting outside.  His head pounded, whether with the echoes of the shots being fired or with concussion, he couldn't really tell…  Behind them both Mitsuhiko let out a faint, half-smothered squawk from under Genta's bulk, but neither he nor the larger boy seemed inclined to crawl out at the moment._

_*What the HELL is going ON out there?!?*_

***************************************************************************

_"……Ojiwa-sensei….. Over here, Ojiwa-sensei……."_

***BOOM-BOOM-BOOOOMMM!!!***  The bullets struck the slide at the other end of the playground, punching holes through the metal.

_*I—HAVE—HAD—ENOUGH—OF—THIS!!!!!*  Ojiwa's thoughts were a swirling, crazed torrent of fury, pain and hatred, all focusing around one thing, one single thought:  ****__*I'llkillthemkillthemkillthemkillthemall!!!*_

Huddled inside the overhung enclosure in front of the playground bathroom, he gasped, hunched over against agony.  The little _bastards—this was all their fault—how __DARED they have hurt him?!?  Didn't they understand that he couldn't be hurt, shouldn't be hurt, he was __on top of things, dammit, and they were supposed to die….._

Somehow it just didn't occur to him that four children, one concussed and all trapped inside a bathroom, were _*not* very likely to be shooting at him.  Something had ricocheted, or maybe a lucky shot had gotten through; all he knew was a burning in his side and warm, leaking wetness soaking his coat._

And the goddamned _voices_………  They were making him waste his bullets.  They kept whispering to him, whispering and calling his name and he had to _killthemkillthemkillthem….._He giggled a little; for some reason the thought of killing a voice seemed terribly funny right now.

_"Ojiwa…….  I'm over here, Ojiwa…..  I can see you….."_

***BOOM!  B-DOWW-BOOM!!!*  "_Goddamn you, shut UP!!!" he howled at the top of his lungs, frustration clouding his vision with red.  __*Red—I'll see those little brats red on the ground, I'll see them DEAD--*_**

Ojiwa Ryu staggered slightly, leaning against the bathroom door and breathing hard as he popped another empty clip out to replace it.  He had a few left, plenty to take care of business, four little devils and whoever else he was hearing from the playground and the roof and the air around him—Nodomo and the brat and—

_(*but not the voice I heard in the hall, not that not that not that one, he's dead and I know he's dead and I didn't really see him No*)_

He could just wait here for the voices to _show_ themselves…..  Sooner or later they would, and then he could take care of them.  Ojiwa hissed at the pain in his side, sharp as glass—they'd PAY for that.  He shifted his back against the door, settling his weight gradually as he scanned the playground for a target…..

….. and felt something behind him….. **_move._**

The door gave—just a _little,_ just a _bit,_ just enough to _gap._  The madman's head turned slowly, slowly to stare at the inch-wide space between metal molding and metal door—

And grinned a terrible death's-head grin.

***************************************************************************

_*Dammit, sensei-no-baka, if you'd just step out from under that overhang I could show you a nice little magic trick; it's called 'The Amazing Unconscious Whacko' trick, and I only need one volunteer…..*_

Hei-san flattened himself a little lower on the bathroom rooftop, mental imprecations against whoever had decided to build the damned thing on an incline running through his head.  It wasn't that he couldn't climb it—he could climb something of this pitch or twice as steep in his sleep—it was just that if he dislodged anything it would roll off the edge and possibly alert the Whacko below.

_*Speaking of which--*  He snagged a bit of rolling debris with the toe of his right foot, catching it about a meter from the edge.   __*If this keeps up, my hair's gonna match my outfit.  Kudo-kun, you can keep your murderers and investigations—I am NOT cut out for this line of work.  If I hadn't made that promise--*_

_*What's… that sound?  Sounded like a door opening-----  Ohhhh SHIT-----*_

***************************************************************************

Across the playground Mouri wiped sweat from his eyes; they burned with salt, making him squint in the reddening sunlight.  "Goddamn you, man… just take one step out where I can see you and---" he muttered, shifting painfully against a cramp in his leg.  

Despite his discomfort he could feel his heart pounding hard with fierce eagerness; he _WANTED a chance to get Ojiwa, wrong as that might be; the bastard had shot his wife, frightened his daughter—hell, he even wanted revenge for that damned Kudo boy!  Mouri Kogoro gritted his teeth, steadying his small weapon carefully; __nobody should be locked away like that—he kept remembering how limp the boy's small form had felt when he pulled him out, like a real little kid's….._

….. and there was Toshiro and Nodomo, too….. and all the other deaths that he expected to be able to trace back to the adjuncted drug shipments (God only knew what the bastard had been cutting them with)…..

Oh yes; he _wanted Ojiwa, wanted him for a lot of very good reasons.  And if he'd just slip up for a *second* he'd have his chance—  Hey, had something just moved on the roof?!?  …..Nahh, must've been a shadow….._

_*click… creak….*  What was __that?  The tiny noises were just audible in the near-silence of the empty playground._

Then Mouri knew, just _KNEW somehow that the bathroom door was opening and that the murderer was going to— and his __daughter was inside and she would be—_

_*@#$#@!!! RAN!!!*_

***************************************************************************

**_*Oh SHIT.*_**  Conan had just noticed the door.  The heavy metal wastecan, the one that had massively saved their hides by bracing the door—it was _round_, and flat-bottomed round things tended to sort of roll along their edges and settle themselves back into place after a while when the pressure against them lessened…..

….. _and he had just seen it shift._

Beneath him he heard three indrawn breaths, one ending in a squeak of terror: the others had been watching the door too, and they had seen the inch-wide line of door-edge that had opened inwards, had heard the thin rasp of moving hinges.  The boy felt warmth trace his skin as a narrow bar of late-afternoon sunlight fell across his face, glittering, gleaming---

_--gleaming like the cold steel of the gun that slid between door and doorjamb, gleaming like the crazed eye that fixed on their faces from beyond the opening—_

Conan's hand tightened on Rin's as he pushed himself even further in front of her, shielding her as best he could with his life…..

_*The bullets'll probably go right through me and hit her anyway.  Oh God, Ran, I'm so sorry—so sorry, Mitsuhiko, Genta--*_

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion:  

the gun-barrel, steadying---

the eyes, fever bright and narrowing---

finger on the trigger, tightening---

_………tightening………._

***************************************************************************

Ojiwa Ryu squinted through the small opening, eyes fixed and glassy, a horrible joy shrieking in his head—

_*got you at last, got you got you GOT YOU NOW LITTLE BASTARDS DIE-----*_

**"Ojiwa-sensei?"**

_*---What--*  He twisted sideways to see_

_….….. to see………._

**_*------No------you're dead------ YOU'RE DEAD-----*_**

The gun fell from nerveless fingers, clattered on the floor—

**"Ojiwa-sensei….."_The boy was looking at him he was dead but he was right here and he was walking towards him—_**

***************************************************************************

Across the schoolgrounds Haibara Ai's small blonde head jerked up at the distant sound of what could not be called a _scream so much as a __howl, a broken, mindless kind of noise she had only heard previously in nightmares.  On the stretcher being loaded into the ambulance Eri-san's face whitened even more, and the policemen that were beginning to edge around the outside of the school towards where the gunshots had been coming from looked at each other, shaken….._

***************************************************************************

Hei-san's head shot up so fast he almost lost his balance and slid; _*Whatthehell--??*  He had heard a voice, an unfamiliar __little kid's voice—_

Behind his bench, Mouri Kogoro choked suddenly on his own breath at the momentary sight of a _child less than ten feet from the killer—_

And then there came the _*shriek* that froze them both where they were, made beads of sweat pop up on the back of Hei-san's neck (though an observer would find his thin, dusty face strangely dry), made Mouri's eyes widen in shock and his trigger-finger tighten—_

--Ojiwa was suddenly pelting across the playground, running hell-bent and weaponless towards the fence with his face in a rictus of terror that was hardly anything like _human—_

***************************************************************************

_*GetAwayGetAwayGetAwayNoNoNoNoNoNo*_

_He was running, he was running--  *Don'tLookBackDon'tLookBackGetAwayGetAwayGetAwayNOOOOO*_

_The gate to the road was open, they couldn't stop him now, scott-free and gone He'd get away with everything—_

**_"Ojiwa-sensei?  Where are you going, Ojiwa-sensei?"_**

_*NONONONONOLEAVEMEALONE!!!*_

_Out the gate nowNowNOW, down the sidewalk-stairs and across the street to freedom—_

***************************************************************************

When the large, heavy delivery truck swung around the corner by the school, it was traveling a little too quickly to stop;  the horrified driver of the sixteen-wheeler _tried to, though, skidding sideways with a horrendous sound:_

**_SKREEEEEEEEEE---_**

--twisting, warping, the metal of its cargo-box _tearing like paper as it seemed to slide across the asphalt in slow motion towards the running man, who paused and stared open-mouthed at the slowly-toppling mass of metal that came to meet him, gracefully falling—_

**_--EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—_**

--the logo reading _'DAISUKE INTERNATIONAL COFFEE PRODUCTS' on the metal wall ripped across with a sound like tearing silk, as the Sunday-only special delivery for one Nodomo Hiroku spilled out all over the road, small white packets mixed in everywhere among the coffee—_

**_--EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—_**

--Ojiwa raised his arms, shielding himself futilely from his fate, his terrified eyes _perfectly aware of what was about to happen to him—_

**_--EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHHHHH------_**

****

**_----------------------__(falling, falling)_****--------------------------------CRRRRUNCH!!!**

****

***************************************************************************

Inside the Boy's bathroom, a very brave, very tired little girl hugged herself against the sudden silence and wondered if it was safe to come out yet…..

Inside the Girl's bathroom four children (two perfectly normal, two perfectly not) stared in utter puzzlement at the handgun that lay harmless as a dead snake on the tiles…..

On a playground a private detective stared in horrified shock at the wreck outside the fence, stumbling through the gate to help the groaning driver from the half-demolished cab; from a rooftop a thief watched, eyes hooded and still.  He nodded once to himself briefly, thinking about how much crueler justice is than vengeance…..

On a wall in a corridor in the depths of the school a patch of somewhat dented plaster lay dry, innocent and white, any stains long since washed away, as clean as bleach and a janitor's disgruntled multiple scrubbings could make it…..

…..And Conan blinked hard against the fuzziness in his vision and the mental image of Toshiro's face:  full of sorrow but somehow… _satisfied._

***************************************************************************

**********************************

*******

_Ysabet's Notes__:  Well, he's dead, and I'm glad.  Very, very, very, very glad.  I created the character and I *STILL* hated his guts.  Take that, Ojiwa-sensei!   SQUISH!!!  HA HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! _

_ Ahem….. sorry.  Well, no, actually I'm not sorry.  The Epilogue (which, sad to say, has just hit over 15,000 words, which sort of puts it in the "whopping huge chapter" category) will be up within 24 hours….. ___


	11. Epilogue: Endings and Beginnings

 **Second Wind**

**By Ysabet**

**_Epilogue:  Endings and Beginnings_**

In the end, it took a little research to make everything clear, but the facts were there to be found.  Once Megure-san and the rest of the police department had come into play, enough links were discovered to forge a tentative but compelling chain of events-and the rest, as it's said, lay in the details; and those would come later.

For the most part it was like this:

Once upon a time in the city of Tokyo there had been a drug boss, a syndicate leader by name of Hedoro Ransou.  A greedy, intelligent man, he had organized a tight little shipping ring of experimental drugs-new and stronger variants of known poisons.  Rather than bring them through in large quantities, Hedoro had chosen to run them into Japan via small, independent 'employees' --- it made for greater risks, but a receiver seldom knew who actually picked up their shipments or who paid them off.  Hedoro-san was greedy, yes, but careful too.  The small shipments entered the country disguised as medical equipment, toys, foodstuffs, what have you--- and coffee, of course.  After the drop-off each shipment would be taken away and broken up into saleable amounts, cut carefully with relatively safe secondary substances; then the packages would find  their ways out into the streets, dangerous little serpents in the corrupt Eden that is Tokyo.

But--- Hedoro-san got _caught._  Oh, not through a drug-bust or something dramatic like that--- no.  It was the car wreck that did it, really… a small altercation on one of the city' s main thoroughfares, nothing more.  But Hedoro was injured, knocked unconscious and taken by ambulance to the hospital… and when the routine blood tests showed that he had been foolishly sampling his wares, everything hit the fan at once and he fell, never to rise again.

But the drugs….. they were still coming in, scattered here and there across the city.  Hedoro Ransou had been cautious enough that the left hand had seldom known what the right hand was doing; most of the suppliers had caught wind of his fall and dried up, but one or two were ignorant or greedy enough to keep going…

And that was where Ojiwa Ryu and Nodomo Hiroku came in.  Nodomo-san had been approached by Ojiwa during a time when the money stretched a little too thin, a few years after his wife' s death--- what with a kid to raise and a gaping hole in his finances, the supply clerk had shrugged and taken to the game, caring very little about the consequences.  It was just for a little while, after all, just something to tide him over…..  But weeks became months and the shipments just kept _coming,_ and Ojiwa was so damned insistent that he keep things going just like normal---

--- and when he tried to back out, when Nodomo's conscience began to twinge, Ojiwa Ryu had stared him down with cold, black eyes and smiled.  "You don't want to do _that,_ Nodomo-san, now do you?" he had asked, grinning nastily.  "After all…  I know where your son is _all_ day long.  You wouldn't want anything to _happen_ to the boy, would you?"  He had chuckled then, walking away; and a shiver of apprehension had threaded its way down the clerk's spine, cold as poisoned ice…..

The problem was that Ojiwa-san, admittedly a small fish in Hedoro's organization, had wanted to become a _big_ fish; so he had seized  his opportunity and run with it, seeing nothing in the least wrong with the thought of feeding filth to anyone who would buy it.  Money made the world go 'round, right?  There were enough little bastards out there who' d pay through the nose to try a new drug, weren't there?  Sure there were.

That was when Nodomo had started taking notes.

A word here, a bit of information there, from driver's records and phone conversations, from scraps of facts that Ojiwa let fall over too much sake after work…..  and there were those times when Nodomo-san had played the good little flunky, driving his drunken co-worker home from a bar…..  Those were the most fruitful chances of all; he had been able to look around Ojiwa' s apartment then, even to open his computer files while the science teacher lay passed out on his bed.  And all of it, every scrap of phone number or address or half-illegible name had gone to feed a set of files on the school computer, stored in the Personal Records section under his son's I.D.

It had taken months.  And in the end, after all his terror and regret, Nodomo had not had the guts to _use_  the data that he had so painstakingly collected.  Ojiwa had found out somehow--- he never knew how; but there had been the confrontation that night, and the horrific moment when he had seen his son fall into the teacher's hands---

Some fathers will do anything for their sons; Nodomo Hiroku figured that he had already sold his soul to the devil for a chance at wealth--- what was there _left_ for him to do?  So he kept hoping, praying that _somebody _would find his boy and_ end the nightmare---_

And there was the matter of the deaths, too; that had really been the straw that broke the camel's back, the impetus that made Nodomo-san realize that what he had been bringing in was _poison, _just _poison_  and nothing else…..  Hedoro the Drug Boss had been greedy, but he had *nothing* on Ojiwa Ryu.  When Nodomo found out that the teacher was cutting the packets of powder with supplies from the school chemistry lab he had protested; but the teacher had merely shrugged.  "Why the hell should I worry about what the little bastards do with this trash once they've paid their money to my guys on the street?  They can all drop dead for all I care--- in fact…" and he had smiled, measuring out something from a vial that smelled bitter and corrosive, "----- in fact I couldn't be happier if they did; keeps _our_ names out of sight, ne?  What's the saying?  ' Dead men tell no tales'….?"

And he had laughed, chilling Nodomo's bones with cold.  As he left the backroom lab the clerk's eyes had strayed towards the open box of rat poison sitting on the counter…..

But that was months before his son had disappeared.  As time had passed and he had grown more and more afraid and guilty, a suspicion had bloomed within him that his partner in crime was sampling the pure, uncut drug; Ojiwa' s increasingly erratic behavior and growing paranoia had seemed to bear the theory out.  The man had always had a tendency towards violence--- how many times had he shown off his gun collection to the frightened clerk, smiling as he clicked a clip into place and sighted down a barrel? Guns were appallingly hard to get hold of in Japan--- Nodomo knew these had to be illegal--- but still he said nothing…..  He was too afraid.

When his son was abducted his world collapsed--- and a mind already weakened by doubt, guilt and terror began to fray…..

After all the flurry was over, the data that he had compiled allowed the police of Tokyo to make a fairly clean sweep of the remaining sources for the drugs; a great many guilty parties went to jail, and the deaths slowed down.  They never quite _stopped--- _but a few people lived who might have died.  In the end the clerk managed to redeem himself a little at least, paying for the wrongs he had done with his life.

He hadn't really been a bad man, had Nodomo Hiroku--- not really; just a very, very weak one who never quite learned how to grow strong.  It was a great and terrible pity that his son had _also_ been forced to pay for his mistakes.

*************************************************************************

_*Hmmmm….. let's see…..  One broken arm, a busted head--- that happened twice--- stitches in my right knee when I gashed it open at the beach--- ummm, the tonsillectomy when I was twelve; okay, that' s five times in the hospital when I was still Shinichi.  Then afterwards….. well, there was the gunshot wound in the gut, and that time I got tossed like a ball when the little miniature-airplane bomb went off in the park, and--- uh, that' s all so far, I guess: twice.  And this makes three times, assuming I haven't forgotten any.  Eight total.*_

Conan was counting trips to the hospital.  It was a little difficult, really, since the world seemed to be more than a bit hazy and soft-edged at the moment; pain-killers did that to a guy.

There wasn't much else he could do, not while being rolled down the hall on a gurney towards his room.  He had been poked, prodded, x-rayed, examined and checked and charted---  And the doctors had all just grunted, muttering things like "minor dehydration, IV fluid treatment recommended" or "double hematomae, moderate concussion".  And then they had _all_ demanded more blood tests.  Why was it that all doctors were vampires?

He had put up with it fairly well… for the most part.  After all, there was no Ran-neechan to rescue him from the fiendish clutches of the lab techs anymore…..  Just a small girl, only a little taller than he was, with the most beautiful dark eyes in the entire world.

Waiting for him--- in the lobby, outside the lab, in his room.  Just like she had waited for him for an entire year…..  Deep beneath the façade of Conan' s features, a young man swallowed hard against the lump in his throat and wondered at Mouri Ran's strength.

_*Not to mention her patience…..*_

The boy stretched, one hand rubbing at the bandages around his bruised andswollen neck as the gurney clicked its way across the hospital-floor tiles.  The finger-marks circling his throat from behind had brought about a few raised eyebrows and a great deal of sympathetic looks from nurses; one doctor had commented laconically that if he had been choked from the front he wouldn't _be_ here, not with that much force used.  _ *Thank God for small favors, I guess,*_ Conan had thought a little ironically.  At least there was no permanent damage; it'd be a while before his voice came back to normal, but it would eventually.  In the meantime he' d just have to make do.

Great.  Just… great.  Not that he felt much like _talking,_ really--- it was just so good to be out of the dark and not hurting!  Well, hurting _less_  anyway, what with painkillers and salves and warm blankets and all.  Everything seemed to be wrapped in a warm, fuzzy cocoon.

(Except…. for the moments when his thoughts strayed to the _other_  child who had been brought into the hospital, the one in the closed bag.  They had sent for a second ambulance for Toshiro, and Conan was glad of that.  It was easier to remember the boy eating ice-cream at Tropical Land, attempting futilely to skip stones across the water, playing with his half-sovereign….. much better to remember him that way.)

He sighed and lay limp on the gurney, eyes closed against the overhead fluorescent light-flicker, just reveling in the feel of _being cared for._  After too many hours in cold darkness and pain, the sheer _luxury_  of this was… intoxicating.  It didn't even seem to matter that he was being treated like a kid who would be crying for his teddy-bear in a minute by the nurses--- they had cooed over him, told him what a brave boy he was, done damn well everything short of hold him in their laps.

And, for once, Conan/Shinichi didn't care.  Apparently there really *was* a lot of needy child left inside the teenager's heart.

_Click-click, click-click, click-click….._  The tiles slid past beneath the gurney' s small wheels; even with his eyes closed the boy could feel that he had left the part of the hospital utilized for testing--- the air was fractionally warmer (it was always cold in hospitals) and he could hear an increase in voices all around him.  He blinked, eyes opening and nose wrinkling against the smell of cleaning fluids as a custodian went past with a rolling cart equipped with buckets and mops…..

_*Speaking of custodians…  Wonder how long it took for Hei-san to disappear?  I'd bet even money he didn't hang around long enough to help the police with their investigations.  They' ll probably figure him for a minor drug client or something, or maybe just somebody with a shady past who had rather not step out into the light.  Hah; if only they knew.*_

_(*Wonder why the hell I'm worrying about this, anyway?  Must be whatever that last doctor injected me with…..*)_

_*It's stupid… but I'm going to miss him.  "Hei-san", that is.  Not the Thief…..  That says something about either his acting ability or my gullibility, one or the other. Wish I knew more about him besides the usual head-butting we do in cases.  Why did he do what he did, anyway?  Why was he there at all?  It' s not like we keep valuable jewels at Beika Elementary, and that's his target-of-choice; no, I'd swear he was there simply and specifically for no other reason than to expose whoever was behind the drug shipments.  Why?*_

_*And… why'd he let me see who he was?  I mean, that little 'accident' the other day with the charm….. yeah, right, an 'accident'.  He wanted me to see it--- why?  Idiot; if I hadn' t been so deep in the Ojiwa case I could've screamed for the cops right then….. but…..*_

_*Guess he had me figured out.  Jerk.  I think Rin'll miss him too.*_

_*…..Dammit, I really ought to be more worried about this, I guess… but I'm just too relaxed, and it IS sort of, well, funny…..  Must be the painkillers.  I'll worry later.*_   For some reason the whole Hei-san situation seemed terribly amusing at the moment…..

_*Must be the drugs…..*_

* * * * * * * *

The middle-aged nurse pushing the gurney smiled down at the cute little boy in her care; _such_ a good child, so quiet and all.  Of course he was quiet for good reason--- the poor thing couldn't speak yet, not with those dreadful bruises!   But he _was_ being awfully good, not squirming around or pulling at his IV.  In fact, for a moment there she had almost thought he was giggling.

Well, she had a lovely surprise for him--- that ought to cheer him up even more!  As they took the final turn into the North Wing ward of the hospital, she remarked cheerfully, "We' re almost to your room, Conan-kun--- and guess what?  You have a very _special_ room-mate!"

The boy turned his head a little awkwardly, blinking up at her with an inquiring expression on his face; the nurse noticed that he was clutching a somewhat battered pair of glasses in one hand.  What a sweet-looking child--- and he'd be just _adorable_ in the glasses, wouldn't he?  "That's right--- your, ah, guardian decided to put you in a semi-private room instead of in a ward… and look who your room-mate is!"  She wheeled the gurney the last few feet , turning in through the door.

Sitting up in her bed, the room's occupant smiled at the boy--- the nurse had been told that she was his guardian' s wife or some such.  Whatever; the child was certain to find comfort staying with someone he knew instead of stuck off in an impersonal multi-bed ward!  A pity that two members of a family had been injured at the same time (she had even heard  that the young woman had been _shot,_ of all things!), but they could make the best of it this way.  Just look at how that nice Mouri-san was grinning where he sat by the window--- he seemed _so_  pleased with the situation, as did the woman in the bed…..

"Hello, Conan-kun; I'm _so_ glad to see that you're all right….. it looks like I'll be in here for a few days as well, so I thought it'd be just… _lovely…_  if we were to room together.  In fact, I _insisted_ on it."  The bandaged woman arched one eyebrow, still smiling sweetly as she pushed her wire-framed glasses up her nose and smoothed her light brown hair back from her face.

Such a pretty thing, thought the nurse; and so _young_ to be a lawyer, too…..  She wondered if the open-mouthed little girl holding her hand was her daughter.  The girl was turning to stare at the boy, eyes wide---

Why, _look_ at the little tyke; he almost seemed in shock--- he kept opening and shutting his mouth with the most _peculiar _expression on his face as she assisted him into his bed…..

*************************************************************************

It was much later in the evening; Mouri Kogoro sprawled snoring in one of the hospital room's chairs, lines of fatigue and unaccustomed worry only now beginning to relax away.  Sonoko had gone home at last, driven by Professor Agasa--- her wound had been minor (although it _had_  required stitches, and she had confided to Ran that the doctor that had stitched her up had been rather cute in a stuffy, professional sort of way).  The Professor had had his own little problems--- Kisaki Eri, while not particularly heavy, was no lightweight… and Agasa-san was no athlete.  From what Ran could gather, he had pulled a muscle in a rather _delicate_  place while trotting down the hall with her mother in his sweating arms.  As he limped his way from the hospital the scientist had been making definite plans to visit a hot springs spa out in the country…..

In the bed near the door, Ran's mother--- Rin's obasan--- shifted slightly in her sleep, the pallor of her face still showing the pain-ghosts of her own injuries.  Ojiwa' s bullet had missed anything major, but it had torn muscle and caused a considerable amount of blood-loss; the woman would be in bed for a week or so, healing.

The three Young Detectives had been carried home in triumph by a police car, much to their excitement.  The two boys seemed all right for the most part--- but Ayumi-chan was perhaps a trifle too quiet as she left the hospital.  Ran had put this down to the trauma of her experience--- the poor girl had been dragged bodily through the school by a homicidal madman, after all; who _wouldn't_ be traumatized?

_*Ayumi-chan…..*_  Impulsively Ran had run forward to hug the child; Ayumi's tear-stained face had lightened a little as her new friend squeezed her tightly.  "It's okay, Rin-kun," she had said, wiping at one eye with the back of a slightly grubby hand.  "We got Conan-kun back, right?  So it's okay."  And she had giggled half-heartedly at Ran's dumbfounded look.

_*You're a pretty special kid, Ayumi-chan, and I'm really glad you're okay too.*_   The parents of all three kids had been horrified, of course, but not as surprised as they might be; sometimes Ran had to wonder about them… and not for the first time either.  Ayumi's mother had arrived at the hospital to take her child home, but the little girl's pleadings had finally won her the coveted ride in the squadcar… although her eyes had followed her daughter's every move until the door shut and the car drove away.

Ran had also watched her friend leave; the diminutive young woman had clenched her small fists until the nails cut half-circles in her palms.  Outwardly the child seemed  all right, but Ran remembered how ghostly pale her face had been when the first rays of late afternoon light had fallen on it through the opened Boy's Room door.  _*Damn you, Ojiwa-san--- what happened to you was too fast!  Ayumi'll have nightmares about this for a long time; it's just not fair.*_

No, it wasn't fair…..  So many things weren't, like poor Toshiro's death…..

Ran sighed, rubbing her forehead with one hand.  She sat cross-legged in a chair by the hospital-room window, her slight form fitting easily into the seat.  It still startled her (and scared her sometimes, if she were to be honest) how _little_ there was of her--- while Conan had been undergoing his tests, she had amused herself by playing with an indulgent nurse's scale and height-measure, pulling the level down to rest gently on top of her head and stepping back to read it.

More than half a meter, gone into vapor.  So very strange, all of it.

But… life was like that.  And so was death, apparently.  She hadn't talked to Conan much about what had happened (it was kind of hard to carry on a conversation when one side of it was all winces, nods, headshakes and scribbled lines), but she was pretty sure that he'd been forced to change his I-Don't-Believe-In-Ghosts,-Of-Course-I-Don't stance.  And she _wanted_  to talk to him about it--- she really did.  It would have to wait, though.

_*Poor Toshiro-kun…..*_  Her eyes drifted towards the small lump that lay so quietly under the covers in the bed nearby.  Conan had come so close to joining Toshiro in death---

What would she have done if he had died?

Her mind refused to contemplate the idea--- it simply balked at it, refused to go on with the train of thought.  Carefully, quietly, she slid off the chair and padded softly across the room to peer closely at the sleeping boy.

So still; Shinichi's face, Shinichi's soft brown hair that her fingers had itched to touch so many times (not that she would have admitted it to herself a year ago, not even under the most refined of tortures)… all smoothed down and reduced to Conan's youth.  Almost against her will she found her hand reaching out, stroking one pale cheek with her fingertips; so soft---  Her hand trailed up into his disordered hair without any orders on her part, moving independently; when she leaned forward to rest her cheek beside him on the bed she could smell the faintly-sweet scent of the soap that the nurse had used to clean his injuries beneath the bandages.

Relaxed in sleep, he looked so innocent; relaxed in sleep, he looked so very much the child.  But she knew better- and somehow, right now, she suddenly wanted to _forget_ the small boy and remember the young man, remember _ Kudo Shinichi….._ just as she wanted (desperately, just for a moment) to be _Ran_ again.  Wanted so much to hold him, to be held by him; wanted, in a moment of déjà vu, what she had wanted for an entire year during the moments when she had allowed her heart to speak.

But….. _no_…..  Not possible; a beautiful dream, but not possible… at least not now.

And yet….. if she closed her eyes…..

It was funny, the way  memory worked; it could be almost tactile sometimes.  Resting here, she could actually feel the warmth of the morning sun on her face and hair as the two of them walked to theirhigh school along the sidewalk; that warmth was still there, that sun was still shining somehow.  If she turned her head she could swear that she would see Shinichi' s animated face, catch some silly wise-cracking comment or long-winded enthusiasm about Sherlock Holmes, the flash of dark blue eyes.  If she let herself remember…..

_….. it was almost like being there all over again._

Her fingers moved in his hair, stroking it softly as she had now and then when he was just Conan-kun and she had been just Ran-neechan-as she had _never_ done when he was Shinichi-kun and she had been Ran-kun.

_Memory….._

She had a lot of good memories stored up-nearly eighteen years'  worth.  It was time to start making new ones now, now that her new life was really going to begin.  Even if Ai-chan found a cure, they could never go back to the two teenagers walking together to school again.  Too much had happened.

_*Besides…*_ she reflected wryly, one finger trailing down his cheek, _*I don't think I'd want to, not if it meant giving up… this.  These feelings.  I guess I can learn to live with being a kid all over again-it seems to be working out so far.*_  Ran laughed silently to herself.  _*It really does take one to know one, doesn't it?*_

He turned his head a little in his sleep, restless; Shinichi's smile (how had she ever missed seeing it?) passed briefly across Conan's young face before he burrowed deeper into the pillow.

Ran's own face lost some of its sadness, a small smile curving her lips as she studied the boy's countenance so close to hers; his warm breath ruffled strands of hair against her cheek.  _*He still looks like himself; he always has.  I just had to learn to see it.  This whole thing with Toshiro and Ojiwa and everything-it's the first time I've watched him in action from the same level, sort of; it' ll take some getting used to.*_  She sighed and stood back up; she was so tired.  Moving gently she slid one knee up onto the bed, and with a slight hop hitched herself up onto the corner.   There was room for them both, after all-and this was where she wanted to be.

As Himitsu Rin, once Mouri Ran, settled herself down in a curl at the foot of the hospital bed, she felt the last traces of fear and tension slipping away and melting into the blankets beneath her.   One small hand crept over to brush lightly against a foot-shaped lump under the covers; she sighed again and her eyes closed once more.

_… this was where she wanted to be._

* * * * * * * *

On the other bed Eri's eyes lidded open a little as she watched her daughter drift off to sleep; the faintest of smiles flickered across her face as she relaxed again, and after a moment her breathing slowed a little as she joined the rest of the room's occupants in sleep.

*************************************************************************

When Conan opened his eyes, Hei-san was sitting calmly by the open window, watching him in the dark.

_*Mph…  Wha-----??---!!  Errghk!!*_

Sleep still fogging his brain, the boy yelped in alarm-or tried to.  With all the will in the world, he found himself totally unable to produce more than a mangled sort of 'eep!' sound, and even _that_ rasped his throat painfully.   None of the sleepers in the room stirred in the slightest.

The shadowy figure in the chair shook his head, crossing his arms.  "Relax, Kudo-san-I'm not here for a confrontation, and _you're_ not in any shape for one.  Wouldn't be fair, now would it?"  The voice was very, very soft, a raspy echo of the Janitor's usual laconic tones, nearly inaudible over Mouri's horrible snoring.  Someone (probably a nurse) had turned the light out, and Conan could just barely make out the other figure's amused, slightly wary expression.

_*Wary?  What the hell does HE have to be wary of?  HE's not the one stuck in a hospital bed with needles all over the place, and who the hell knows where my shoes and my watch are- dammit, I'm helpless-*_   He shrank back a little, eyeing the dim shape nervously.  _*Okay, 'Hei-san'….. why are you here and what do you want?*_

Something in his expression must have conveyed his thoughts to his visitor; Hei-san let out a quiet snort of laughter, leaning back and stretching.  "Soooooo….. I suppose you're wondering why I've called this meeting?" he asked in a low-toned rather president-of-the-board-ish voice, grinning.  "Just wanted to clear up this or that before I'm on my way.  I guess you're wondering why I was here at all, too--- hmm, Kudo-san?"

Habit made the boy glance reflexively around the room, but there was no-one there who did not know his secret; talk about a first…..  He cocked an eyebrow at the coverall-suited figure, beginning to feel more curious than worried.  In the shadowy flicker of streetlight from the window he could see that one sleeve of the coverall seemed to be torn, stained darkly; the white flash of a bandage gleamed momentarily beneath the tatters.

At his inquiring gaze Hei-san glanced down, flexing his fingers.  "What?  Oh, _this?_  Just a scratch; guess Ojiwa got a lucky shot in.  Y'know, that sort of thing _never_ happens to me when I' m being chased by _cops_….."  A faint grin flickered across his face.  "…_OR_ detectives…..  just the _bad guys_.  I must live right or something."

_*…'or something'…..*_

An enormous snore from Mouri-san made them both jump; 'Hei-san' eyed the Sleeping Kogoro with amusement for a moment before continuing on.

He stretched again, yawning and scratching at his hair.  "By the way, thought you' d want to know something kind of funny.  Before he got squashed, Ojiwa-baka-san managed to collect a bullet in the side himself---only, when they took a look at what was left of him down in the morgue--- and they damn  near had to pick him up with a sponge--- seems it came out of his _own gun."_  The shadowy face grimaced.  "Unlucky guy; must've caught a ricochet.  So don't let Mouri-san over there crow _too_ much, hm?"

_*Huh; weird.*_

"Weird, huh, Kudo-san?"  The boy gave him an odd look, wondering at coincidence; things like that made him nervous.

_*Very weird.  Talkative tonight, aren't you?*_

Hei-san glanced at the rest of the room's occupants, his brown-eyed gaze softening briefly as it rested on Rin's small form, curled up at the boy's feet like a sleeping kitten.  "Y'know….. I kind of wish you could tell me the story behind you two…" he said softly, cocking an eyebrow towards the girl.  "Whatever it is has _GOT_ to be worth hearing; but….. you've got _your_ agenda….."

Slowly he stood up.  "…..and I've got _mine."_  The young detective tensed, shifting so that he could throw himself across Rin if he needed to.  But Hei-san just shook his head.  "Settle down, Kudo-san--- I _told_ you I wasn't interested in a confrontation.  I just want to get a bit more comfortable, that's all.  What's wrong?  Don't you *trust* me??"  At the faux gradeschooler' s scowl he sighed dramatically and began shrugging out of the janitor's coverall, allowing it to drop to the floor and revealing a plain dark shirt and pair of jeans beneath.  He flexed his long arms outwards, cracking his knuckles.  "Ahhhhh….._  That_ feels better…"

Interestingly enough, the voice sounded _younger_ now than Hei-san's had; a bit higher in tone, lighter, different.

Settling back into his chair he scrabbled at his hair, tugging off the dusty brown wig; it was too dark in the room to see his actual hair color.  Tugging a small plastic bag from his pocket, he carefully began peeling the sections of mask from his face, never quite allowing the broken light from the window to touch his features.

Narrow-eyed, Kudo Shinichi watched what he could (the disguise pieces, for the most part-but they were interesting enough), noting the padding in the lower jaw, how the shape of the ears had been changed, the thin caps for the teeth that were popped loose… and finally the brown contacts that were carefully dropped into a tiny box.

At last the shadowy figure blinked at him, rubbing a little at one cheek.  "Whew.  You ought to feel honored, Kudo-san--- that was one of my best disguises.  Let's see, it's been--- what? Three times we've met? Four?"  White teeth flashed at him through the dimness, Hei-san's uncharacteristic smile in an unseen face.  "You always demand my best work--- guess that's one of the reasons I came to see you tonight before I disappear like a good little thief should."  Dark blue eyes picked up a stray beam of light from a passing car, their color glinting sudden and startlingly brilliant in the dim room.  He chuckled.

The soft voice sounded even younger than before--- more like that of someone in their early twenties or late teens, perhaps even someone Shinichi's own real age._  *But I figured that out a while ago, didn' t I?  Just another puzzle to do with Kid…..*_

The Once and Former Hei-san stood up, tucking the roll of clothing and the small bag under one arm.  "Wish you could tell me how you rumbled me so quick--- I mean, I was actually _enjoying_ being Hei-san, Wonder Janitor, y' know?  Except for the cleaning.  And obviously I let you see that little charm of mine to tip you off….. not really sure why I did that; guess I just wanted to give you something to think about, rattle your cage a bit….."  A low chuckle filled the room.  "I think I'm going to miss Hei-san."  And for a moment the youngish voice was almost mournful.

Shinichi frowned a little, lying more at his ease now.  _*How'd I know you weren't who you seemed, 'Hei-san'?  Simple, really; it was when Ojiwan struck you on the face.  There wasn' t a red mark--- not the smallest trace of one--- so what he struck had to be something other than skin.  And you didn' t sweat enough; that too.  Even the best, most porous mask holds back sweat to some extent.  And there was the way your hands moved; you gathered up those papers when we were reading like a magician shuffles cards, and you didn' t even think about it.  Nothing really substantial, just enough strangeness to make me look at you like a suspect instead of just… Hei-san.*_

_*Arigatou, Hei-san; nice knowing you.*_

The slender dark figure stood up, pulling a baseball cap from his back pocket and tugging in on, the brim low overhis face.  A pair of mirror-lensed glasses went on beneath it, the shades effectively masking the face as well as any top-hat and monocle ever had.  He sighed, glancing out the window; it was beginning to rain lightly.  "I… owe you something, a little…  When I came here I planned on taking care of Ojiwa and his mess without anybody getting hurt; maybe if I had moved a little quicker--  I wish I had known it was him that was dealing the drugs; I didn't, or I would've been in and out good and quick.  But… I didn't, and it took me a little too long to figure it out--- longer than you did, Oh Great Detective of the East."  He shrugged and, with one swift movement, swung a leg out and over the sill.

Still staring a little distantly out the window, he continued to speak quietly.  "If I _had_ known, maybe Toshiro-kun would still be alive, and Nodomo-san.  I'll never know, and that's _my_ burden to carry."  For a moment the voice roughened; it was hard to tell what the speaker was feeling behind the mirrored glasses, but his voice seemed to bear a load of--- was it _guilt?_

Hard to say.

He swung the other leg over, sitting on the sill as calmly as if in a chair.  Shinichi sat silent, willing him to go on.  After a moment, the young man who had been Hei-san smiled a little in what seemed to be self-mockery-not bitterly, but with a kind of sad amusement.  "I… have a friend, y'see.  And _she_ had a friend, too….. emphasis on 'had'….. somebody foolish and naïve enough to think that they could play around with drugs and not get hurt.  They were wrong; they got one of Ojiwa's little Rat Poison Specials and paid for it the hard way."  The soft voice was quiet for a second or two.  "I--- promised my friend that I'd _do_ something, I didn't know what-something to help stop the spread of the drugs.  I'm not enough of an idiot to trade the role of thief for one of Caped Crusader," and he laughed a little wryly; "---but I did manage to play detective enough to trace the drugs back to Beika Elementary.  And as for the rest… well; you _saw_ the rest."  He shrugged again.

As the thief slipped out of the window he glanced back at the boy one more time.  "See you later, 'Conan-kun'--- nice working _with_ you on this one.  Oh, and, um, thanks for not pressing the nurse call-button while we talked, too--- or did you even think of that?"  He cocked his head curiously to one side.

_*Smartass—would've served you right if I had, you know…..*  _The young detective shrugged; he _had,_ but somehow it just hadn't seemed… right.  Much as he hated to admit it, he owed the guy.  _*You're about as strange as they come, aren't you?  I' d give a lot to know your story, too.*_

Standing on apparently nothing but air, the dark figure hesitated for a second.   "Whups, almost forgot---if you check the second locker over from the teacher's lounge in the South Hall, you' ll find those magazines you and the girls liked, by the way; I left a note with that American librarian about 'em, and she'll be dropping off the occasional stack there as well.  Seems she has a couple of subscriptions….."  He chuckled at the expression on the boy's face.  "My little parting gift, ne?"

"Oh, and speaking of parting gifts---"  A quick flick of the wrist, and Shinichi tensed as something flew through the dark towards him---

_*Aaack!!*_

-- to land on the boy's chest with a soft *_chuff*._  A rose, golden-hearted and as white as the moon.

The thief grinned down at him, a brief flash of white teeth in a dark face.  "Give that to the little one, to Ayumi-chan, okay?  For courage under fire.  And tell her maybe I'll see her again sometime… who knows?  She might make a good Kaitou someday….."

Shinichi glared daggers.  _*Over my dead body--*_  He struggled to sit up-----__

But the curtains fluttered briefly in the evening wind, and the thief was gone.

*************************************************************************

Three rooftops away, Kuroba Kaito was still laughing to himself at the look on the young detective's face as he navigated a tricky bit of loose tile-work.  _ *Whoooo--- that was worth any risk--!  Kudo looked like he was ready to throttle me himself.  One of these days I'm gonna push that guy too far, but 'til then he is SO damn much fun to tease--!!*_   Still chuckling, he squinted through the rain at the next rooftop, gauging the distance before he made the leap; it wouldn't do for a Master Thief to fall and bust a leg or something supremely embarrassing like that.

_*Kudo'd have my ass in a sling and my name on an arrest warrant faster than--- well, maybe, or maybe not; he's kind of handicapped at the moment, of course….. and probably pretty confused right now, as well.  This isn' t the first time he's owed me; bet he's sweating it out, wondering when I'll collect.  He's not such a bad guy, is he, for a law-and-order sort?  Kind of a pity, really; he'd make a damned good Kaitou himself….. if he wasn't so short, that is.*_

He gathered himself, coiling like a spring.  _*Well, it's done; time to go back to the normal routine….. school, homework, squabbling with Aoko, astounding the authorities and giving Nakamara-san grey hairs…..  If I' d had to stay any longer, my school-leave papers'd have to be renewed, and that might have been trouble.  Oh well--- *_

----  he jumped, compact and low and moving like a cat---- 

_*-- at least I can tell Aoko-kun something has been done about the drugs, even if I can't give her any details.  I don't… like to see her cry.*_

The thief landed without a sound and went on his way through the rain, whistling softly, heading for home.

*************************************************************************

_It was much later, and Kudo Shinichi was dreaming; he dreamed and **knew** he dreamed, sitting a little ways off from everything and watching the moments as they passed like scenes on a movie-screen….._

_(darkness inside of a box, close and unwilling confinement wound around with terror and pain and the knowledge that no-one knew where he was--- Will they find me in time?  My head hurts so much--- )_

_***Yeah, it did hurt, it really did.  I've been hit on the head a lot of times before but this was the first time I ever had a concussion.  Hope it's the last time.***_

_(a boy waiting in a park with a tainted flashlight in his hands, the half-coin, flickering and spinning over and over and over as he tosses it:  only half a chance really, never enough of to make a full chance, a real chance… just the ghost of a chance for freedom)_

_***Toshiro…..***_

_(her face, the face he knew almost better than his own, the one he had watched for a year through a mask of glass: new, strange-familiar, changed and yet the same, no less hers, no less loved---   "Conan-kun's got a giiiiirl-friend!  Conan-kun's got a giiiiirl-friend!  Conan-kun's got a giiiiirl-friend!")_

_***Shut UP, guys!  Okay, okay, YEAH I've got a girl-friend!  Satisfied?  Sheesh!***_

_(poor sad little ghost-child, skipping stones on the banks of an illusionary pond, eating a dream of ice-cream in an amusement park made from air and nothingness…..  .  "This is real dirt--- it's making my fingers dirty, and it' s cold and wet!  How can it be not real?" said the boy, frowning at the illusionary ground--- )_

_***I'm so sorry, Toshiro-kun.  You deserved better, and I couldn't give it to you.***_

_(and the half-coin was spinning again, flipping over and over through space….. that smell, so horrible--- he knew what it meant and he had to look, had to look though he didn' t want to because it would mean that he was too late and he had been too late from the beginning and that was *impossible* because there was no such thing as ghosts---)_

_***So much for that idea.***_

_(the hands pulled him from his tomb, such large hands (he had once had hands like that) gathering him close to Mouri/Ojisan and bringing him out of death into life again…..)_

_***Mouri-san, I--- uh, well, I----   Anyway: thanks.  Thank you.***_

_(and her face again: laughing at him, a smear of mud on one child-round cheek and her hair still dripping from being splashed at the park….. love in her too-wise child's eyes, woman's eyes….. *Ran*…..)_

_***Ran***_

_********_

_*****_

_***_

_*_

_….. and the dream-images began to blend and blur into darkness, familiar calm darkness starred distantly with the pinkish orange sulfur-lights of Tropical Land' s parking-lot.  Dream-sounds faded away into indistinctness as the soft scuffing of two pairs of sneakers replaced and overlay them, moving quietly along in a double rhythm across the asphalt towards the unlocked gate._

_"Why am I not surprised?" Kudo Shinichi asked himself, glancing upwards at the starless sky, hands in pockets._

_His self answered:  "Well, maybe because we've spent so much time here lately we ought to get a local mailing address? Or maybe set a tent up back of the arcade?  Or maybe---- Ow!"  A set of knuckles thumped the boy on the head, and he scowled up at his alter-ego.  "I threatened to punch Ojisan in a pretty damned uncomfortable place if he did that to me again---"_

_"---and if you punch me there you'll be hitting yourself, which is pretty stupid.  So don't try it, pipsqueak.  Besides, our mom taught us better than that."_

_The boy crossed his arms and hunched forward, muttering:  "…works both ways, you know; you just thumped yourself, so what's that make you?"_

_Shinichi opened his mouth, then closed it and looked annoyed; he shrugged.  "Hey, I deserved it."  A snort was the only answer he received, and his mouth crooked up into a grin.  "Who cares, anyway?"  He threw his head back and laughed.  "We're OUT OF THAT DAMNED BOX!!"  The shout rang across the empty parking-lot, echoing off unseen walls._

_"No shit, Sherlock.  Now can you be any louder, hmmm?"  The boy beside him rolled his eyes, though the same grin sat broadly on his rounder, softer features._

_"It's like I said----  who cares?  I mean, who's gonna hear us *here*??"  Shinichi kicked at a pebble on the asphalt; it skittered off across the rough surface._

_"Well….."  The toe of Conan's small shoe thwacked against the pebble as it rolled to a halt before them; he kicked it a little further.  "I guess….. since you put it like that….. nobody, really….."_

_Shinichi smirked._

_"….. except those two up there by the gate….."_

_"Huh??"  His older self jerked his head up from where he had been searching for the errant pebble.  Two figures stood by the gate, waving; even from half-way across the parking lot the two could recognize who waited for them._

_Conan smirked *back* at his alter-ego.  "Race you----- " and  he was off, short legs pumping as his small feet thudded on the asphalt.  For one long moment Shinichi gawked after him--- and then he threw himself into pursuit with a shout as if his life depended on it, long limbs flying._

_The shorter of the two figures by the gate turned to the taller.  "Well?"_

_"Hmmm?"  Ran was watching Shinichi, her eyes shining a little with laughter.  Her long, dark hair drifted about her face in the cool evening breeze, the chestnut strands reflecting the flickering neon of the amusement park's signs._

_"Which one do you think will win?"  The small girl tucked her thumbs into her pockets, leaning back comfortably against the legs of her taller self where they stood against the railing.  They watched as the taller figure overtook the shorter, scooping the short form up and tucking him kicking and yelling under one arm as Shinichi ran.  "Umm, never mind.  Moot point."_

_Ran giggled, looking down at herself.  She stretched alittle, her long, slender arms arching above her head as she marveled at the simple sensation of *height*; it felt strange, seeing the ground so far away again.  After a moment her gaze dropped to her child-self's small form; she brushed the soft brown hair crowning the little girl' s head with light, curious fingers, wondering at the softness of the strands._

_The child glanced up inquiringly.  "What?"_

_"Oh… nothing.  I've just never seen the top of my own head before, except with a mirror… it's kind of strange."_

_Rin eyed her with a small grin.  "You should see the view from here, Ran-kun; you look awfully tall… and, umm, sort of… well, a bit less flat-chested than I remember being….."_

_Her other self swatted at her with an indignant squawk; the little girl dodged, laughing.  "Well, what did you expect?  The view's *different* from down here!"  She giggled.  "Better watch how you stand around Conan-kun….."_

_"Awp!  RIN!!"  The child just laughed as Shinichi came pelting up to the gate, a highly-indignant Conan-kun tucked under his arm like a sack of groceries.  She beamed up at the young man who halted, panting and leaning on the gate.  "You' d better put him down; didn't you bite when you were a little kid?"_

_Both males sputtered identically; it was quite a sight.  "Hey----  Rin-kun….. c'mon, now; I was REALLY little when I did that!  I mean, smaller than the pipsqueak here, that is…"  Shinichi wiped hair from his eyes, upending the smaller boy to drop him with a *thud!* onto his feet.  Conan snorted in annoyance as he brushed himself off, muttering imprecations under his breath and glaring up at himself._

_A gentle hand smoothed his tangled hair from behind; startled, the boy turned to stare up into Mouri Ran's expressive dark eyes as she straightened his jacket with practiced fingers.  Neither spoke, but they both shared a strange, tender sort of momentary déjà vu in which (for one gentle, phantom second) only a normal young woman called Ran-neechan and a rather bright little boy named Conan-kun stood there….._

_Then the moment passed._

_…..and the heart behind the small boy's smile was one that she had known for eighteen years.  Of course, the fact that Shinichi was also standing by *watching* them both with a curious, reminiscent look on his face was enough to make a person's head spin--- but none of them really minded much._

_Without another word, the four passed through the gate and began walking, not really paying much attention to where they were going.  Conan fell in beside Rin, their shoulders brushing; she smiled a little shyly at him, her eyes straying to the two taller figures  that walked in front and how their hands were intertwined.  Two smaller hands linked together; there was trust in the clasp, and a lot of things that would gounsaid for the next decade or so.  Sometimes it was better that way; when you didn' t speak, you didn't stammer or get the words wrong… and besides: it was unnecessary, for the most part._

_The lights of the empty rides and attractions flickered brightly to either side, and off in the distance the sound of the Mystery Coaster making its endless rounds roared like the waves of a wood-and-metal sea; Rin lifted her head briefly to watch as it climbed a hill, paused, dropped--- _

_They talked a little as they moved through the park, of everything and nothing.  Memories, things that had come up in the past few days, questions, plans for the future…..  At one point Rin turned to Conan with an amused lift of an eyebrow and commented that when they woke up he had better plan on running for his life--- her father had seen her use the sleeping-darts from her pendant, and it wasn' t much of a leap of conjecture from there to the Famous Sleeping Detective…..  Conan swallowed hard, wondering if he should talk to Haibara Ai about escape-routes._

_But Shinichi simply shrugged.  "Bet he doesn't say a thing."  He met their three incredulous gazes with a wry grin, shaking his head.  "He's too fond of the idea of being some sort of genius--- sorry, Ran, but that's how it is,  you know him better than we do----- "  Laughing, he dodged a mock blow that she aimed in his direction.  "And if he doesn't ask about the darts, he won't know for *sure* that we' re responsible for him solving any of those cases… and I'll bet he prefers NOT to know."_

_Ran sighed, running the fingers of her free hand through her hair; she nodded a little gloomily.  "You're right, I guess….. but… he really was pretty fantastic this afternoon, wasn't he?  I mean, in the fire-fight and all….. it reminded me of how he was when I was little, when he was a cop."  She walked on in silence for a moment, face thoughtful.._

_"Something on your mind?" asked Shinichi quietly; his hand was warm in hers._

_The dark eyes that looked up into his were filled with sorrow.  "I was just thinking… about Toshiro-kun.  I wish we could've done something more for him."  She hesitated, wanting to ask but half-afraid to.  "…..When you were still in that horrible cabinet--- when we were in the hall, I thought I saw----- "  Ran stopped, a wondering light in her eyes._

_Rin turned to stare curiously at Conan as well, who avoided her gaze by glancing shiftily up at his taller self.  "You want to handle this one?  After all, you're the one who used the double-sided coin….."  The small boy grinned wickedly, and Shinichi shot him a dirty look._

_"Oh, thanks *loads,* the older youth growled._

_"You're welcome….. cheater," the younger boy smirked._

_Wince._

_ Then Shinichi sighed, grimacing as he turned to Ran with slightly pained expression.  "It's kind of hard to explain…  I sort of wish Toshiro-kun was still here so he  could explain.  I just, well, *winged* it.  Toshiro-kun kept showing up here, and he had this idea that one of us could leave with him and… umm… try to contact you---" The young detective faltered, his entire aspect drooping sheepishly  under twin horrified stares._

_ "LEAVE??  Leave HERE??  Leave *yourself* behind??…..Shinichi….. does 'This is a BAD idea' mean anything to you?  What do you think you are, some kind of magician?!?  That is *absolutely*--- that's----"  Ran tried to find the words for the situation, eventually giving up and settling for waving her arms and sputtering._

_Rin picked up right where she left off; hands on hips, the diminutive girl  glared up at the young man severely.  "----that's one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard of," said the small girl sharply, snapping at him in pure exasperation.  "I mean, it's bad enough that you got stuck in that box, but *this*----  who knows what could've happened?  You could have----- "_

_"---you could have died, or gone crazy, or, or----   Separating from *yourself*??  Shinichi, you--- you----" Ran dissolved again into sputters, her hands also on her hips.  The two confronted Shinichi with identical expressions of horror and indignation; he seemed to shrink a little in place, and Conan edged around behind a post, wide-eyed and apprehensive._

_Sheepishly the young man ducked his head, studying his toes. He scratched at his head.   "Yeah, yeah, I know.  But I was kind of desperate. Well--- actually, I was REALLY desperate.   There was nothing else we could do!  We couldn' t get the damned drawer open, couldn't make any noise, couldn't contact anybody any other way----   Dammit, Ran, I----- "_

_The sound of a step towards him and the lightest brush of a hand on his shoulder and a finger against his lips stopped the flow of words; Shinichi looked hopefully up into Mouri Ran's face, hesitating.  "I know," she said softly, a lingering trace of anger still edging her words; "I know.  You've always been so good at taking chances---  no matter *what* size you were."  She shook her head, one corner of her mouth quirking up a little.  "Brain-damaged as it was, I guess this was just one more gamble, ne?"She was standing very close to him now, dark eyes gazing a little up, straight into his._

_(Behind them Conan frowned.  "Hey!  'Brain-damaged?'  It----- "  But Rin shook her head, touching *her* finger to his lips and tugging him away a little.  "Shhhh-------")_

_Shinichi swallowed, feeling his pulse beating in his throat.  "Gambles… sometimes a chance for something you really *need* is better than a sure thing you already have, if you're willing to take the risk… and if you want it hard enough.  But you know more about gambles than I do, don't you, Ran?  You took the biggest one of all….." he said softly; she blinked at him for a second, and then her eyes strayed past his shoulder towards a distant spot behind the arcade as comprehension dawned._

_Shinichi gathered his courage then, and took another gamble; his hand came up to cup her cheek as, very gently, he kissed her.  Ran's eyes widened in astonishment, then closed as her own hands came up and behind him to caress the back of his neck, the softness of his hair.  The gentleness of the kiss caught fire after a moment, fueled by all the fear and longing and love that they had both felt over the last few days, and their arms were suddenly tight around each other as they forgot where they were, forgot theircompanions, forgot the world._

_And if the kiss was a little unpracticed or clumsy, neither minded in the least._

_But….. even they had to breathe after a few moments; at last Ran rested her head against Shinichi's shoulder, cradled a little self-consciously in his arms.  "We… should have done that before, when we had a chance in the *real* world, you know?" she whispered, laughter making the words tremble._

_He brushed his lips a little awkwardly over her forehead; he loved the feeling of her skin and the scent of her, warm and fragrant and oddly *comfortable* against him.  "Y-yeah… not sure if I could have, though; you know what a coward I was about anything like that…"  It was strange, holding her so closely--- but somehow Shinichi thought he could get used to it pretty easily.  He sighed, resting his chin on the crown of her head._

_She laughed softly, turning so that her face was half-hidden against Shinichi's chest.  "Me too.  Every time anybody said I was your girlfriend or something, I always made a fuss about it--- and if YOU did anything affectionate, I never knew how to take it--- but you know something?  I don't think we were fooling anyone."  Looking up at him, laughter sparkling in her eyes, she was just about the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and he opened his mouth to say something, he didn't know what--- _

_---- but she was drawing him down to her now, one hand pressing against the back of his head.  This kiss was long and sweet and less awkward than before, with Ran's fingers twining in Shinichi' s hair; they were getting better at it (some small part of Shinichi's mind was dancing gleefully in the background and chanting something about 'Practice Makes Perfect').  A third kiss seemed to be agood idea as his hand slid down to the small of her back, pulling her closer; a fourth one sounded even better--- _

_Someone cleared their throat._

_Flushed and startled, the two teenagers were suddenly a good two feet apart from each other, red-faced andout-of-breath.  Cheeks burning, Ran  swung around to confront the two small figures who were sitting side by side on a fence-railing a few feet away, watching with interest.  "WHAT?!?"  Behind her, Shinichi glared._

_"Oh, nothing….."  Rin merely smiled a slightly smug smile; beside her Conan silently offered a small paper bag, and the girl crunched on a few kernels of popcorn from it before glancing up.  "Don't mind us….."_

_Shinichi was suddenly at Ran's shoulder; he glared down at his counterpart with a distinct don't-say-anything-you-might-regret-later look in his eye.  The boy merely beamed back up at him, munching; the smell of the buttered popcorn floated through the cool air.  After a moment, a slightly distracted Shinichi reached around Ran to nab a bite for himself; he crunched thoughtfully."Where'd you get the popcorn?"_

_In answer Conan nodded towards a darkened concession stand, his mouth full; he swallowed, passing the bag to Ran; the boy's dark-blue eyes twinkled a little as he held it out.She hesitated, blushing even redder, then relented and took the bag with all the air of someone accepting an apology._

_They walked on, further into the park; no particular destination drew them--- it was simply something to do together (the 'together' part was the most important bit).  Crumpling up the paper bag, Ran tossed it towards the dark mouth of a trash-bin, wondering for a brief moment if it would show up there in the 'real' world the next day.  She glanced up at Shinichi, whose hand held hers loosely, fingers intertwined.  "You know… I just thought of something…"_

_He looked sideways at her, tilting his dark head in that gesture that she had seen so many times before.  "Yeah?  I did too.  You first, though----  what'd you think of?"_

_She chuckled a little.  "I think I know why we're… well, like this."  Ran gestured at herself and at Rin with her free hand. " You know--- twins, sort of.  I think I've figured it out."_

_Now she had all of their attention; serenely, Ran continued on.  "There's two things we both have in common:  We both took the capsule and became kids again….. and we're both sort of survivor-types--- you know, stubborn.  Right?"_

_Frowning up at her, Conan objected; "There's a LOT more we've got in common beside just those---"_

_She tapped him on the nose with one fingertip.  "Quiet, you; that was a rhetorical question.  Now….. when we each took the capsule, our old selves--- Shinichi and I--- sort of 'died', right? We don' t exist in the *real* world anymore, unless you two use one of those temporary cures you told me about… which might be interesting…..  So: if we couldn't continue to live in the waking world, then what I' m thinking is that we kept on living here, wherever here is----- " and she chuckled again; "---basically because we're too stubborn to just give up and die."_

_Three astonished sets of eyes stared at her.  Again, Conan was the first to speak.  "Are you saying," he said slowly, "that you two still exist because we're too--- too damn *pigheaded* to just let go of who we were?"_

_"Yes."  She grinned down at him.  "Well?  Is anything I just said untrue?  I know it sounds crazy, but----"_

_Rin crossed her arms, a peculiar look on her young face as she eyed her older self.  "I refuse to think about it too hard…" and she gave a shiver.  "Ghosts and things like that are bad enough, but at least they're not US, if you know what I mean.  That's….. creepy."_

_Beside her Conan grimaced, shoving his hands into his pockets; he sighed, shaking his head hard as if to dislodge a bad idea.  "I'm with you… I've had enough headaches lately; I don't want any more!"  He rubbed at  his temples gingerly._

_Their two older selves looked at each other and shrugged simultaneously; Shinichi snorted once in amusement.  "Yeah, well, I can sympathize."_

_They walked a little further on into the park; by now the wind was beginning to rise a bit, blowing drifts of leaves in scurrying little groups across the sidewalks and roped-off waiting areas.  A damp, green scent filled the air, the sort of smell you get when the grass has been newly cut and the sprinklers have been on; kicking at a leaf, Conan wondered who handled the landscaping for *this* landscape?_

_Errgh; never mind._

_The two girls had dropped back a little to talk; he glanced over his shoulder as he fell in beside Shinichi.  Ran's head was tilted a little so she could whisper down to Rin, and the identical looks of surreptitious humor on their faces made him sweat slightly.  He indicated the pair with a nod of his head towards the detective.  "Hey--- think we should maybe interrupt?"  Even to his own ears he sounded tentative._

_Shinichi cast a look back over one shoulder and shuddered.  "Not for anything in the world am I gonna get near enough to hear what they're saying about us right now," he said firmly, shoving his hands into his pockets.  A giggle from behind them made both boys hunch their shoulders a little, and Conan gulped, agreeing silently.  After a moment, though, he glanced up.  "You told Ran that you had figured something out, but you never told her what it was---- ?"_

_"Yeah, right; and on second thought, I'm not *going* to, either."  At the boy's inquiring look he sighed, muttering something indistinct that was probably better not heard.  "You remember how much we hated it being dark inside that damned box?  How much we wanted light?"_

_"Um… yeah?"_

_"Well….. I guess when you get conked hard enough to rattle your brains, you get a little… forgetful."  Shinichi held up his bare left wrist and tapped it with one finger.  "What are you wearing that I'm not?"_

_The boy thought for a moment; then his eyes bugged out.  "Awwwp!  DAMMIT….."  His fingers slid along the band of the wristwatch that Professor Agasa had designed for him--- _

_----- the wristwatch with the flashlight in it._

_Quietly Conan began to swear under his breath.  His older self listened resignedly fora few moments until he ran out of steam, then helpfully added a few phrases he had forgotten.  In total accord the two looked at each other, dark blue eyes meeting dark blues eyes.  "Let's not say anything, okay?"_

_"No shit, Sherlock," said Shinichi, rolling his eyes._

_* * * * *_

_"Soooooo….. "  Rin grinned up at her counterpart, who arched one eyebrow.  "What?"_

_The small girl snorted, a most unladylike sound.  "Oh, c'mon.  Was he a better kisser this time?"_

_Ran suppressed an urge to smack her on top of the head.  "That's none of your business, is it?--- umm, well, I guess it sort of **is** since you're me, but---"_

_Rin grinned up at her.  "Uh huh…  and when we wake up, we'll be one person again and remember what it was like *anyway*, so…??"_

_"I'm not going to tell you."  The young woman crossed her arms and glanced away huffily._

_"No fair!  Oh c'mon, Ran-neechan…" wheedled the little girl, her heart-shaped face framing large, imploring eyes; "Pleeeease?  Pretty please?"_

_"No."_

_"Please?  After all, who else are you going to talk to about it?  Or were you planning on explaining about *this*" and Rin waved a small hand at their surroundings "to Sonoko-kun?"  Ran flinched at the very idea; the child crossed her arms, smirking.  "No, huh?  So….. was he?"_

_"Ummmmm… "  The young woman could feel her cheeks heating; a broad smile crept across her face and she giggled.  "Yeah--- he was.  And I think I was too.  Was it you or Conan that cleared your throat?"_

_The girl frowned, perplexed.  "I'm not sure, really."  Shooting a mischievous look up at her other self, she giggled back.  "Good thing one of us did, though, or we might have been there all night, ne?"_

_"Oh--!  Give us a little credit----  we do have some restraint, you know….."  Ran scowled down at her indignantly, blushing even redder."_

_"Oh, sure, sure, you both looked **really** restrained just then---"  Leaping sideways, a laughing Rin-kun dodged the older girl' s grab and scooted past the boys, followed by the young woman in hot pursuit.  Their steps echoed of the silent, brightly-lit attractions to either side as they clattered past the two boys, who followed them with their eyes._

_"She really IS something, isn't she?" murmured Shinichi, watching as Ran dove towards the smaller girl with one hand outstretched; Rin promptly skittered around a tree and took refuge up its trunk, scaling the rough bark like a squirrel.  Her laughter shook twigs down over both combatant and audience._

_Conan nodded, his eyes shining behind his glasses.  "Yeah, they are.  Wouldn't tell 'em so too often, though---"_

_"---just now and then, so they don't murder us or anything when we get too annoying---"_

_"---right; gotta keep them on their toes somehow….."  A little girl's shriek announced Ran's attempt at pulling her counterpart down from a treebranch by the ankles; leaves flew everywhere.  Both boys laughed….._

_….. only to freeze at more laughter from behind them: little boy's laughter, familiar laughter.  As one, they turned in place to see---_

_Toshiro-kun, perched on a fence, giggling._

_* * * * *_

_The party of four--- no, FIVE now, with the addition of someone they had never thought to see again--- were sitting at the ice-cream vendor's; the sound of cones being crunched vied with the scraping of plastic spoons on bowls in the silence of the park._

_Toshiro was explaining._

_"---and they said they'd take me where I need to go, but I could say goodbye first… so I came here."  The little boy licked at a drop of chocolate syrup that had escaped tothe corner of his mouth; he wiped his face on the back of one hand, smearing the smudges a little more evenly around.  Ran resisted the urge to help for a moment or two longer… but the habits of a year of Conan-keeping finally took over and she gave in, reaching across to dab at the thin young face with her own napkin.  The boy squirmed a little under her ministrations, then grinned up at her and took another bite._

_He seemed to have taken a liking to her; it had come as a startling realization that he had actually never met her as Mouri Ran, just as 'Rin-kun'.  In fact, Rin had taken great delight at introducing her other self as ' Ran-neechan, Shinichi-niisan's girlfriend'…  The two Great Detectives had (much to their amusement) simultaneously blushed a fiery red and the little boy had giggled._

_And now she was wiping chocolate syrup from Toshiro-kun's face._

_He just didn't seem like a ghost._

_She bit her lip, trying and failing to reconcile the busily-munching, sticky-faced child in front of her with what she had so briefly seen in the storage room at the school.  Impossible--- and maybe, just maybe, it wasn't important anyway.  That pathetic remnant was the past; what sat before her was what had survived and was moving on and away, out into his future.  Maybe it wasn't the sort of future that he deserved, and maybe it wasn' t what he would have wanted--- _

_But it was out of their hands, wasn't it?  That was what Toshiro-kun had come to tell them, so that they wouldn't worry._

_She took another bite of her raspberry sorbet, trying to swallow the lump in her throat along with the cool sweetness.  Beside her Rin looked up privately at her with the same mixture of grief and wonder shadowing her unchildlike eyes; the older girl shook her head quietly._

_Apparently *someone* (or, from the sound of it, several someones) had picked him up from the schoolyard right after Ojiwa's demise.  Toshiro-kun was quite calm about it--- they had said that they' d take care of him, and that all would be well._

_There was a certain comfort knowing that things like this *were* taken care of, wasn't there?  Still… thinking about it made her twitch.   Ran shivered, leaning against Shinichi a little harder and looking over her shoulder one more time.  Nothing, or nothing yet….._

_God, but she hated ghost stories._

_Toshiro-kun was talking again, interspersing his words with the sounds of the last bits of his ice-cream cone:  "They said (*crunch*) that they' d be here (*slurp, crunch*) in a little while--- they had to get some stuff first, but (*smack, wipe hands on pants*) I could come play with you here while they were busy."  He licked at his fingers._

_Eyebrows raised, Conan opened his mouth to ask a question; he grunted as he received an elbow in the ribs from Rin.  "Don't; just *don't*, okay?  I don't think we' re supposed to know too much about this sort of stuff, and furthermore I don't WANT to know.  This is one time when ignorance is bliss, okay?" she muttered sotto voce, glaring daggers at the boy.  He subsided, looking slightly sulky._

_"Anyway---" and Toshiro licked his fingers "---they also said I need to do something before I go….. so….."  He scooted off of his chair, hopping down onto the leaf-littered pavement and stepping back from the table.  The four people sitting there regarded him somewhat apprehensively as he looked back gravely, stood a little straighter--- _

_----  and bowed with all the solemness of a little boy determined to do things right.  "Domo arigato, Conan-kun, Rin-kun, Shinichi-niisan, Ran-neechan.  Thank you for saving me."  He straightened, a grin slipping out as he regarded them all._

_There was a long silence, broken only by the sound of the soft wind rattling the canvas umbrellas at the tables and the distant roar of the Mystery Coaster._

_Ran was the first to speak, her eyes glimmering with sudden tears.  "But… Toshiro-kun… we didn't save you… we---"  Her voice broke.  Shinichi stirred restlessly in his seat, looking unhappy; beside him Conan swallowed, remembering what he had seen in the storage room.  He shared a momentary glance with his other self, a mere flicker of gaze between them that spoke volumes:_

_*Too little, too late.  We tried, Toshiro-kun, but it just wasn't enough.  It was too late for you, too late for us.*_

_As if answering their thoughts the child shook his head firmly.  "You DID too save me-you let me out!  I didn't want to be there anymore---"  He scuffed one toe across the pavement, his fists balled tightly at the memory, "---and I'm OUT now!!"  The last few words were full of triumph and relief, and the boy laughed._

_He regarded his companions for a moment longer, then grinned a little wider.  "I've got one more thing I gotta do before I go-don't look, okay?"  And Toshiro turned around, fumbling in both pockets for something; glancing over his shoulder he giggled; "No cheating!"_

_Conan cocked his head to one side, watching the boy curiously.  "But---"_

_Toshiro-kun shook his head, turning back and holding out both hands in front of him.  "It's a magic trick-they taught me how to do it-here, Shinichi-niisan, Ran-neechan, you each take one…"  In his palms lay two wadded-up napkins with a suspicious lump in them.  "Only you can't open them up until later, okay?"_

_The two teenagers looked at each other, hesitating; 'later' would be after they were awake, and… that would change everything.  Not that it was likely that anything they were given *here* would translate to the waking world-_

_--or, thought Shinichi, sweating, probably  not.  He had given up guessing on this sort of thing.  *No more ghost stories,* he thought plaintively; *no more hauntings, no more unexplainable phenomena, no more supernatural stuff--just plain old, ordinary, non-weird murders, please- no more ghosts!  I don't WANT to believe in ghosts, okay?  Give me a homicidal maniac any day, or a jealous wife, or a crazed businessman… but no! more!! ghosts!!!*_

_He fingered the small wad of paper curiously, wondering what it might be.  A magic trick?  Ran met his troubled gaze with her own as she thanked a somewhat gleeful Toshiro for her 'gift' ; just on the off-chance, maybe they should slip the little packages to their younger selves later….._

_The detective shook his head; what was he thinking?  …Oh, never mind.  It was enough to make his head hurt all over again._

**_"Oi!  Toshiro-kuuuun!"_**

_The voice made them all jump, startling Shinichi badly as it shook him from his thoughts; he nearly fell over backwards from the table.  *God, sombody ELSE is here?!?  It's damn near getting crowded-*_

_'Somebody else' turned out to be two somebodies, one of which was waving his arm cheerfully off in the distance.  The figures (one tall and  thin, one smaller and slighter) were walking towards them from far back along the midway; it was hard to really make out details from here, but they didn't look familiar-_

_*Oh...  right…..  Urk!!*_

_It was, all things considered, a **good** thing that they didn't look familiar, since they were apparently coming to pick up Toshiro and take him… away._

_"…I don't want to know.  I don't want to know.  I don't want to know….."  Shinichi glanced across the table; the small, determined mutter belonged to Rin, who was gripping Conan' s hand tight enough to bruise judging by the white-knuckled clench she seemed to have going.  Then again, considering the sudden pressure on his own fingers and the young woman who seemed to have scooted her chair close up against him with a nervous look on her face, she had company.  Some things never changed._

_The two men were close enough to see properly now, their steps ringing on the asphalt.  The taller one wore a black trenchcoat and a normal-looking suit; his rather flyaway dark hair blew across his eyes in the soft breeze, and he brushed it impatiently back with what looked to be a habitual gesture as they covered the last few yards, shifting the paper bag he was carrying into the crook of one arm.  His blonde companion (who also carried a bag; Shinichi' s eyes widened a little as a wisp of steam rose from the opening) seemed quite a bit younger, with a solemn large-eyed face and an expression much older than his apparent years; he was dressed like any teenager you' d see on the street, jeans, sneakers and a sweatshirt._

_"Hi!" chirped Toshiro, completely at ease._

_The trench-coated man grinned at him, an infectious grin that made his face seem to light up from inside.  "Ready to go, Toshiro-kun?  Hey-you've been eating ice-cream!  Where'd you find it?"  The boy pointed at the counter._

_The blonde maybe-teenager opened his mouth to say something scathing-you could tell it from the look on his face-but he stopped, rolling his eyes.  "Go on," he said, sounding resigned.  Without another word his companion gleefully plunked his bag into the other's arms (who swore as he juggled both containers) and dove behind the ice-cream counter, opening glass cases and beginning to pull out scoops and toppings with abandon._

_Shinichi's nose twitched; that little wisp of steam… he could swear-no way--  If he wasn't losing his mind entirely (which was a definite possibility by now), he' d lay even money that the bags the blonde was holding were….. takeout?  The appetizing smell of teriyaki beef and yakisoba noodles filled the air._

_Yeah, right.  Like you ate Chinese takeout in the Afterlife?_

_*I don't want to know.  I don't want to know.  I don't want to know.  I don't want to know…..*  Shinichi gulped, fighting back an insidious, almost overwhelming desire to ask questions._

_Not even slightly fazed by the stares he was receiving, the blonde teenager smiled very slightly; he glanced around, taking in the empty park, then nodded towards the older man behind the counter.  "Don't mind him--- he's an idiot, but he's harmless."  An indignant "Hey!" came in answer, but the youth ignored it, shifting his bags a little._

_At that, Toshiro giggled, stepping forward to peer up into the boy's face.  "I did what you said… I thanked everybody-but we didn't have time to play!  I wanted Shinichi-niisan to show me how to skip stones better…  Do we have to go *now*?  Can't we stay a little longer?"_

_The blonde young man shook his head firmly.  "Sorry, 'Shiro-kun, but it's time… past time, really; you should've gone on more than a week ago, but-well.  Never mind that."  A somewhat sad  smile stole across his pale face as he regarded the crestfallen boy.  "It's okay, though--- remember what we told you?  There's somebody waiting for you, somebody that needs you to help him…"_

_Toshiro seemed to brighten a little at that.  "Oh yeah--- my daddy's waiting for me!  …but… why does he need me to help him?  What's wrong with him?"_

_*His--- daddy?  His father?  Nodomo-san.*  Shinichi traded a look with Ran; her dark eyes were distressed and filled with memory, but a shade of relief underlaid the sorrow.  His hand tightened a little in hers, trying to offer what comfort he could._

_The young man sighed, shifting the bags again.  "It's kind of hard to explain-and I don't know a lot about his case-but the first thing he needs to do is apologize to you.  He has a lot of things he' s sorry he did and a lot of work to do to pay for them-he has to begin somewhere."  At the boy's puzzled look he shook his head.  "You'll understand later, 'Shiro-kun; don't worry about it right now, okay?"_

_"okay…"  The gradeschooler looked a little uncertain, but he smiled trustingly up at the older boy, who returned it fleetingly.  He didn't seem like the type of person who smiled often._

_His companion seemed to be trying to make up for it, however, bustling around the counter with three ice-cream cones of truly monumental proportions balanced precariously in his hands.  He beamed at all onlookers, eyes sparkling like a child's. "Here's one for you, Toshiro-kun… and one for you---"  He offered a multi-layered tower of ice-cream to the blonde, who eyed it dubiously.  "Tsuzuki, I didn't want a--- oh hell," he broke off at the hurt look on the other' s face.  "Here, take a bag---"  Slightly less burdened, the younger man took an experimental taste.  "Hm. Not too bad, I guess…"_

_The others watched owl-eyed.  Conan and Shinichi traded glances; this was just too weird for words._

_Taking a huge bite of ice-cream, the dark-haired man grinned back, swallowing; his eyes were large and expressive, and the color seemed to sparkle oddly violet in the dim light.  "Nice place you've got here--- I can see why you two-- um, I mean four--- come here so often."  His eyes widened a little at their apprehensive looks and he shook his head, still smiling.  "Don't worry, we're only here for Toshiro-kun… you lot are safe.  Your names weren't in the Kisekei or anything like that, so--- oof!"_

_His companion had just elbowed him in the side, looking annoyed.  "What he's trying to say is that we're just here to collect the boy, and then we'll leave you alone."  The teenager sighed.  "So you can quit looking so panicky."  He cocked an eyebrow above one green eye at Shinichi and Conan; "What's the problem?  Thought you two were supposed to be the Great Detective of the East or something, right?"_

_The two components of the Great Detective of the East eyed each other with a certain trepidation, each wondering whether or not they should be actively terrified that whoever-this-was *knew* something about them (and fighting back the urge to ask what a 'Kisekei' was.)  "Uhhh…  Sorry--- we're just not used to---"  Conan waved a hand vaguely, indicating the entire situation.  He felt Rin grip his free hand even tighter._

_The blonde teenager offered another faint smile.  "I'd be surprised if you were.  Ready, Toshiro-kun?"  The last was directed at the boy who was busily consuming his second (much larger) ice-cream cone of the hour.  "We're late as it is---"_

_Obediently the gradeschooler stepped up to stand between the two, wiping at his mouth with the back of one smeared hand.  Beside Shinichi Ran drew in her breath sharply, hesitated--- then suddenly stood up, walking over and stooping to dab at Toshiro's sticky face with a napkin again.  The boy wiggled but allowed her to clean him up a little, and when she was finished he looked up solemnly into her face.  "Don't worry, Ran-neechan," he assured her earnestly; "It's okay.  I'm going now, and you and everybody else won't have to worry anymore."_

_Ran felt her eyes fill with tears; impulsively she caught the little boy up in a hug, wondering just how much he really understood of what was going on.  Behind her she heard Shinichi swallow hard, scraping his chair a little as he stood.  "Goodbye, Toshiro-kun….. you take care of yourself---"  She drew back a little, looking up past the boy at the two who stood to either side.  "You'll make sure he's alright--?" Ran asked hesitantly, to be reassured by the dark-haired man's nod.  "I wish… I wish he could come back with us when--- when we wake up; I wish we could just pretend that none of this had happened, that he could just go on to school like a normal little boy---"  She stood slowly, releasing him; her tears spilled over, trickling down her cheeks to drop to the pavement below._

_Long, strong hands came to rest on either of her shoulders as Kudo Shinichi drew her up then, tugging her back gently to stand against him.  Ran could feel his warm breath stir the tiny hairs on the back of her neck as he whispered:  "There's only one truth… no matter what, it always comes back to that.  Even if we pretended--- even if he could--- it would be a lie, and it wouldn't work.  Things change."  His voice was low and slightly rough.  She turned in the circle of his arms to press her face  against his chest, a sob rising in her throat._

_Toshiro looked on, distressed at her tears.  "Ran-neechan?"  The soft voice sounded tentative.  "What's wrong?  Did… did I do something bad?"_

_She turned hastily to speak, but before she could Rin was on her feet and moving forward; the little girl smiled at the boy despite her own tears.  "No, you didn't do anything wrong; she just… hates to say goodbye."  The child drew a hard breath as Conan stepped up to stand next to her, looking a little awkward.  "You go on now, and--- and Toshiro-kun?  I hope everything works out for your dad, too."  She leaned forward then, and kissed his cheek gently with a little-girl kiss; it made him blush bright red--- he goggled at her as she stepped back and away, wiping her eyes._

_The two silent figures behind him shared a glance, and then the trench-coated man placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.  "Time to go now, Toshiro-kun," he said quietly.  The boy nodded-then stopped, turning back to look at Conan.  "Thank you, Conan-kun…  I'm sorry you got hurt helping me; I wish I could stay and play with you more--- maybe you could teach me to be a detective too!"_

_Conan smiled back, fighting down the building-sized lump in his throat; there was a stinging in his eyes that he struggled to ignore.  All the worry, all the work, all the terror of his time in the box--- everything seemed to distill and dwindle in that moment down into something insignificant next to the fact that, for *once*, he had actually been able to help a murder victim after the crime was over.  That had never happened before; every other case had only brought solace for those left behind, not for the ones that had gone on._

_This time it had been different.  This time….._

_….. justice had stretched just a little further than usual.  And damned if it hadn't been worth it._

_He nodded gravely at the boy.  "I wish you could too.  You'd have made a good detective, I think…..  See you later, Toshiro-kun."_

_Toshiro grinned his familiar grin.  "Bye, Conan-kun."_

_As the two men turned to leave with their charge (still licking at the last of his ice-cream), the trench-coated man glanced back; his face was solemn but his eyes smiled just a little— they were very kind.  "Don't watch us go," he said softly; "It's easier that way."_

_The four watchers looked at each other; then, as one, they turned away back towards the direction from which they had come.  Ran bit her lip to keep the tears back, and Shinichi rather awkwardly put one arm around her shoulders._

_Behind them the sounds of three sets of footsteps continued on, gradually diminishing in volume as they moved further away---_

_--- and then ceasing entirely.  Conan stole a last look back over his shoulder, but there was no-one there to see, only silent pavement and an emptiness of shadows._

_* * * * *_

_The walk back was very quiet._

_It was funny, thought Conan, what kinds of silence there were.  You had the bone-chilling, hackled silence that came with the knowledge of danger, or the comforting silence of safe haven, or the hard, stunned silence of realization; you could find solace or terror in quiet—it all depended on the situation.  This was a strained, sad quiet… the sounds of emptiness; something had been there, something was gone.  This silence was made up out of people missing someone: a boy named Nodomo Toshiro, aged seven years and no more._

_He glanced sideways at Rin, watching the lights play over the softened child-roundness of her face.  Had she been that pretty the first time around?  He didn't think so (or if she had, he hadn't noticed, little idiot that he had been)… ten years of experience lent a depth to her eyes deeper than any jewel's.  _

_She tilted her head back a little, following the movements of something overhead; Conan glanced up and frowned as he shoved his glasses back up his nose with one finger.  Hey, were those--- no way… were those clouds overhead?  *Don't be stupid, Kudo; the only thing that's ever been in *that* sky was when it rained blood, and I don't think that's gonna happen again anytime soon.  At least I hope not.*  He shuddered._

_It was true, though—the dreamscape's sky was always empty; no sun, no moon, no stars, no birds, nothing.  Just darkness, thick and black.  So why was there a distinct look of movement way up there?  The boy turned to nudge his older self, but the young man was already looking up warily._

_*Damn, I hope it doesn't rain again…..*  He eyed the clouds (and they WERE clouds—weird…) uneasily._

_"Conan-kun?"  Rin was still staring up at the sky, pale face softly lit by the midway's glitter._

_"Hmm?"  He kicked at a pebble, watching it skip across the sidewalk towards the ornamental pond to one side.  It cleared the shore and entered the water with a plunk! as he continued on past._

_(Toshiro, sitting on the bank, trying to skip stones….. "I almost got one all the way across!  You want to try, Conan-kun?")_

_"Do you ever wish you were doing something else?"  Rin's soft, lilting child-voice was subdued._

_He eyed her sideways a little oddly, still walking; a soft breeze fluttered her dark hair across her face, the strands twisting in the wind like streamers of silk.  "Sure…  I mean, when I was in that damned box I wished I was doing all sorts of something elses, up to and including explaining my watch-darts to the Amazing Sleeping Kogoro, which says a lot about how desperate I was right then.  Is that what you mean?"_

_She elbowed him, making him grunt slightly.  "Behave, Chibi-chan, or I'll tell my mom you have a secret crush on her."  He blanched.  "No, I mean… do you ever wish you weren't doing detective things?  That maybe you had gotten interested in something *different*… ?  I don't know, maybe acting or sports or—or just something else?"_

_By now he had slowed a little and was staring at her, one eyebrow arched.  "Why in the world would I want to do **that**?"_

_Rin also slowed her pace, turning to glare at him slightly.  "Well, for ONE thing, if you hadn't gone all detective on everybody you wouldn't be living a second childhood, right?  You wouldn't have gotten bashed on the head, or chased by criminals, or shot in the stomach, or—well, any of all the other awful things that you've had happen to you over the past year.  You know, THOSE things.  Your life would probably be a lot more peaceful—"_

_"—and a lot of criminals would've gotten away with murder," he said flatly, brows furrowed.  "Ra—I mean Rin, what are you getting at?"  He hesitated.  "Is this—are you asking me this because of how you've been changed?  You *know* that if I could have stopped you, I would have—"_

_She rounded on him fiercely, her eyes throwing back sparks.  "That is NOT what I mean!"  For a moment she sounded exactly like the adult she had once been—the inflections were unmistakable.  "I'm not talking about my life, I'm talking about yours!"  She drew a deep breath, tucking her chin and looking down at her little girl's body.  "I don't mind this so much any more—I'm not saying I *won't* later, but I still think I made the right choice… no matter what happens."_

_They walked on a little more; then Conan spoke up again in a small voice.  "Do you—do you wish I had been different?"  He sounded very young in that moment, and rather tired.  "Rin… this is how I am; I think it's a little late to change….."  The boy laughed, but there was little happiness in the laughter.  "*Really* late, all things considered."  He shrugged his narrow shoulders, and the gesture seemed to emphasize his small stature._

_"Stupid."  Her tone was affectionate, if still a little annoyed.  "If I wanted you to change I wouldn't be here with you right now, would I?"  A small finger reached out, tapping Conan squarely on the tip of his nose; he looked up, startled.  "No… I just wondered, that's all… I just wondered if you thought it was worth what you've paid."_

_His eyes softened, the sharp dark blue gaze gentling as it traced her features through the mask of his glasses.  "Can't say I like it all the time—but it's a hell of a lot nicer than it used to be.  And… I've done some good, maybe in some ways that I couldn't have if I had stayed the way I was.  I guess….. yeah; yeah, it's been worth it."_

_Conan laughed a little, then, hunching his shoulders forward.  "Of course, that's not going to stop me from trying to get us **back** to normal one bit…….. and there's the Black Organization and all to still bring down….."_

_"But it's a hell of a lot better than dying in some amusement-park back lot, I guess.  Especially now."_

_He turned his head, craning to look up at the two silent figures walking behind them.  "What, no comments from the peanut gallery?  You two are awfully quiet all of a sudden… I almost thought you had gone off without us."  Conan reached out, poking his counterpart's leg with one finger.  "Anybody there?"_

_Shinichi looked down his nose at him, grinning a small grin.  "Just us chickens… or," he added dryly, "in your case, shrimp." _

_"Hey!"_

_The young man chuckled; Ran elbowed him in the side ("Ooof!"), then hugged him a little as if in apology.  After he had recovered his breath, Shinichi scratched his head and continued, a thoughtful look in his eyes.  "You're not saying anything I haven't thought of before, so why should I say anything now?  You're right; even if there's moments when we hate it—when we hate being too damned small, too damned weak—when we want our life back….. it's not so bad."  His gaze flickered sideways towards the young woman beside him.  "We're not alone anymore.  And we will find a way to bring down the Black Organization."_

_Ran's own eyes sought out those of her older self's; they shared a conspiratorial glance for a moment as they walked.  "Besides," the small girl said softly, "we can always start over again if things don't work out, you know…"_

_"Hmm?"  Both males frowned identically, turning to stare at her.  "What?"_

_She blinked at them both innocently.  "Well, if Ai-chan can't find a cure and we have to grow up a second time, we'll have our whole lives ahead of us, right?  And when we get older—when we're old and gray-- if we haven't stopped the Black Organization yet we can always take another capsule apiece and turn into little kids *again* and start all over…..  I'll bet we could find a home with Sonoko when she has a family, or maybe with Hattori-kun or somebody like that… or even maybe with our own kids or grandkids….."  She blushed a little but continued to smile serenely up at the two boys, who sputtered incoherently at her for a few moments.  Ran hid her own snickers behind one hand, then pounded on Shinichi's back when it looked as though he was about to choke._

_"And besides….." Rin laughed softly to herself, "who says that one lifetime'll be enough?  It's something to think about, isn't it?  I think I could manage several lifetimes with you….."  She tilted her head, laughing up at the young detective, who reddened._

_Shinichi smiled down at the top of her head, his cheeks warm.  "I… guess it is at that.  A second lifetime or a third… it doesn't matter how long or short they are, really—they're time well spent."  And he chuckled, the sound a little roughened by the emotions tightening his throat.  "But we are NOT going to live with Sonoko….."_

_She stuck her tongue out at him.  "Spoilsport."_

_Beside him Conan looked up at Ran; she smiled down at him.  "Well, Chibi-chan?"  He made a sour face, but his lop-sided grin snuck through.  "Guess I'd better agree—if I don't, you'll probably beat me up, won't you?  You and your little gradeschooler karate thugs'll make my life hell at Recess otherwise….. you'll sic Ayumi-kun on me or something---"_

_She chuckled and riffled his hair._

_The two couples walked on; the wind was rising even more now, moving the now-distinct clouds across the sky in a roil of grey; dry leaves skittered across the pavement like tiny children, dancing in circles and spinning around each other.  Shinichi lifted his face towards the broken darkness above; after a moment he spoke again, his words soft enough to nearly be indistinct.  "Y'know… all this 'ghost' business….. I keep thinking:  in a way, Ran and I are the ghosts here— we're the past, and you two," he nodded towards the small figures beside them, "you two are the present.  Not to get philosophical or anything, but….."_

_Ran mock-frowned.  "I don't feel much like the past—I feel like me."  She tugged at one strand of his hair, turning his face towards hers._

_Kudo Shinichi shot the young woman a wry grin.  "Well, you **are** you—and if Haibara does manage to find a cure, I guess we're the *future* as well….."_

_Conan snorted, but softly._

_They had nearly reached the main gate by now, and they paused to look around at the blinking lights, the flutter of leaves.  "It's different, isn't it?" whispered the boy, peering up wonderingly at the sky above as if looking for clues.  "I don't remember it ever being like this before—"_

_Shinichi shrugged.  "Things change."_

_A gust of wind blew across them all, swirling in a momentary burst of coolness; it spoke of distant rain, of green and growing things and the promise of newness.   The four of them stood still, breathing in the scent of life….. and over their heads, the clouds broke up at last._

_"Look, everybody—" whispered Ran, her eyes shining; she leaned back comfortably in Shinichi's embrace.  His hands tightened on her shoulders as her eyes sought out the heavens, and he tilted his head back as well.  "Look up--- you can see the stars."_

*************************************************************************

Outside the hospital the night flowed onwards as had a million, million other nights before, darkness begetting darkness and leading inescapably towards the conclusion of dawn.  Lights from the traffic signals below reflected in red-green-yellow semaphore, sending cryptic signals and clues to the few drivers that were out this early; the patterns broke up in the puddles on the pavement, starred by falling drops.

If one were to look up from the sidewalk, one might have seen a certain window; and if one had been able to rise up like an angel (or a Master Thief, perhaps) and ascend towards the heavens to peer in through the glass, one might have seen something else, too…..

Two children sleeping as soundly as any innocents ever had, one bandaged and tucked into a bed and the other curled like a kitten at the  foot.  Their faces were calm and relaxed in slumber; any dreams they might have been sharing together were surely dreams of peace, devoid (at least for the moment) of any conflict or sorrow.

The small girl's hand was clasped tightly by that of the little boy, right within left; and loosely held in the free hands of each…..

….. were plain paper napkins, somewhat wadded up but open enough to display what lay within:

Two halves of an old coin, roughly split but with worn edges, shining golden in the darkened room like hope, twinned and glimmering from the bottom of Pandora's Box.

For a moment, the echo of voices (or perhaps merely the _memory_ of voices) almost seemed to shiver through the room's silence:

_…..In the past, it was customary occasionally for sweethearts to cut a coin in half, each one keeping part of it as a keepsake….._

_…..My mama gave it to me when I was little….. you're supposed to keep it with you so you remember the person who has the other part…..  Goodbye, Conan-kun….._

_Goodbye._

Outside the window the wind was picking up; the rain was lessening, and the clouds were beginning to break.  It was still some time before sunrise, but there would be stars before dawn.

***********************************************************************************************************

**Ysabet's Notes:**  Sigh.  It's over.  Do you know, I've been writing this story for seven months?  Long haul…..  I hate stopping a storyline I enjoy; it leaves a big chunk of empty space in my writing portion of myself.  Fortunately I've got several other stories going right now that'll fill in the space nicely (the next chapter of 'Conversations Among Ghosts' will be up shortly), but this one will always be sort of special to me; it was the first thing I wrote after my father's death (he died on 11/30/01) and a lot of the angst in this one came from dealing with that.

And by the way, to anyone who couldn't handle the mushy waffiness in the last part due to saccharine poisoning, well….. it got a little out of hand, I admit.  But it just had to be done.  Hope you liked the Yami No Matsuei crossover….. couldn't resist!

_Got one last thing to say, just a bit of an explanation and probably Big Time unnecessary on my part, but I've been wanting to say it all along: it's about the 'window' concept.  From the very first story in this trilogy ('The Window') through 'The Longest Hour' and up through 'Second Wind', I've been using the idea of a window for all sorts of things.  I mean, in all three stories you had physical windows (Conan's and Ran's windows in the first one, the bus windows in the second one, and Conan's again as well as the storage room's window in the third one).  Fine; those were deliberate and obvious.  But the main idea behind a 'window', for me, has always been time—opportunities that you'd miss if you let them go by, split-second chances that you just could *not* afford to hesitate on.  Think of the 'launch-window' that an astronaut uses, and you'll get the idea.  That's what I was thinking of, and I used the old trick of making the symbol be the thing itself throughout the whole story arc, just for fun.  Am I getting too obscure here, or was it obvious?  Just curious.  I adore symbolism, and the concept of Time is SUCH a crucial part of the whole Detective Conan series…  I've always loved the opening scene at the beginning of the first season's episodes, with Conan standing on the moving arms of a giant clock, staring defiantly out at the Universe._

_Errrrrrm; I'm getting soap-boxish, and that's unintended.  Just wondered if the concept had worked.  Blahblahblah, natternatternatter… I do tend to run on, don't I?_

_Next question……. I sort of left this open-ended, with Ayumi getting distinctly suspicious about Rin (and why Sonoko keeps calling her 'Ran', the doofus).  Whatcha think?  Should I go with the idea, or have I worn this one out?_

_Let me know, okay?  And thanks for coming along on the ride; I had a hell of a lot of fun………. Ysabet_


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